FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 


REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 


THE    LIBRARY   OF 


PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


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THE   FIRST 


.^H  OF  PR/i%v 
APR  23  1932  "^ 


General  Conference  of  Lutherans 


IJSr  AMERICA 


HELD   IN 


PHILADELPHIA,   DECE:\rBER  27-29,  1898 


Published  Conjointly  by 


Gen'l  Council  Publication  Board 

Ni).  io22  Arch  Street 

PHILADELPHIA : 
1899 


Lutheran  Publication  Society 

No.    1424    AlU-II    STItKKT 


PREFACE. 


Only  with  the  pubh'catioii  of  the  proceedings  and  papers  of 
the  General  Conference  of  1898  can  its  significance  be  pro- 
perly estimated.  Such  interest  was  elicited  that  there  has 
been  much  premature  discussion  based  upon  the  meagre  press 
reports  and  the  various  impressions  of  participants  and  visi- 
tors. This  volume  enables  the  Convention  to  be  carefully 
studied,  and  makes  its  appeal  to  future  generations  of  Luther- 
ans whom  it  will  influence.  Apart  from  their  place  in  the 
Conference  the  papers  are  of  themselves  of  permanent  value. 

The  committee  having  sincerely  endeavored  to  secure  repre- 
sentatives of  the  various  tendencies  within  their  several  bodies, 
if  any  element  was  not  represented  it  was  due  to  the  declina- 
ture of  some  originally  invited  to  respond. 

Although  the  essayists  were  limited  in  the  reading  of  their 
essays,  no  such  restriction  was  placed  upon  the  copy  furnished 
for  publication.  The  remarks  after  the  essays,  not  being 
stenographically  reported,  were  reproduced  from  memory, 
and,  in  some  cases,  more  fully  elaborated  by  some  of  the 
speakers,  while,  in  the  failure  of  others  to  do  the  same  service, 
they  are  passed  by.  The  discussions  given  are  rather  records 
of  the  matured  opinions  of  the  speakers  than  exact  reproduc- 
tions of  what  was  said.  While  every  one,  therefore,  is  re- 
sponsible for  what  is  attributed  to  him  no  argument  from 
silence  can  be  just. 


4  PREFACE. 

Neither  for  the  settlement  of  any  (juestion,  nor  for  iiidis- 
criininate  discussion,  was  the  Conference  called  and  held.  Its 
aim  was  simply  to  afford  a  faithful  presentation  of  how  the 
living,  urgent  doctrinal  and  practical  problems  of  the  liour 
are  being  met  within  the  several  General  Bodies.  Whether 
writers  and  speakers  regarded  themselves  as  the  exponents  of 
the  prevalent  positions  in  their  own  Bodies,  or  M'ere  correct 
in  their  assumptions,  or  simply  uttered  their  individual  con- 
victions, must  be  judged  by  the  intelligent  reader.  The 
strength  of  the  Conference  and  the  permanence  of  its  influ- 
ence are  to  be  found  in  the  clearness  and  distinctness  of  the 
testimony  to  the  truth  lor  which  it  afforded  the  opportunity, 
and  the  love  of  Christ,  and  of  all  who  are  Christ's,  that  per- 
vaded it  from  its  inception  to  its  close. 

Henry  E.  Jacobs, 

Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 
Philadelphia,  April  2uth,  1599. 


TABLE  OF  OONTEj^^TS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

OFFICIAL  ACTION  AND  PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT,  9-16. 

OPENING  SERVICE,  17-30. 

OPENING  ADDRESS,  30-34. 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CONFERENCE,  35-40. 

ESSAYS  AND  REMARKS,  41-321. 

"Our  Common  Historical  Antecedents." 

First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  41-62. 
Second  Essay  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  J.  Nicum,  D.D.,  63-80. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas,  80. 

"       "      E.  T.  Horn,  D.D.,  80. 
"  "       "      D.  Earhart,  80. 

«  "       "      Prof  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  80-1. 

"       "      E.  T.  Horn,  D.D.,  81. 

■     "Prayer:  Its  Doctrine  and  Forms,"  by  the  Rev.  E.  T.  Horn, 
D.D.,  81-7. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  J.  Nicum,  D.D.,  87-8. 
"  "       "        "      D.  H.  Bauslin,  D.D.,  88. 

"  "       "        "     E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  88-9. 

"  "       "      G.  F.  Krotel,D.D.,  LL.D.,  89-90. 

"  "       "      L.  E.  Albert,  DD.,  90. 

"  "       "      Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  90. 

"       "         "     J.  Fry,  D.D.,  90. 
"  W.  H.  Staake,  Esq.,  90-3. 

"  Dr.  G.  G.  Burnett,  93-4. 

"  Rev.  E.  T.  Horn,  D.D.,  90. 

5 


6  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

ESSAYS  AND   REMARKS— CcNTiNrED. 
"Our  Edlcational  Instititions." 

First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  D.D.,  94-104. 
Set-ond  F^say  by  the  Kev.  Prof.  S.  A.  Ort,  D.D.,LL.D.,  105-115. 
Remarks  by  the  Kev.  J.  A.  Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.II.D.,  115-16. 

"TuE  Scope  axd  Limitation  of  Chvrch  Authokity." 
First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  D.  II.  Bauslin,  D.D.,  116-132. 
Second  Essay  by  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Krotel,  D,D.,  LL.D.,  132-143. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas,  144. 

"       "      Chas.  S.  Albert,  D.D.,  144. 
"  <<       <'      J.  C.  Kunzman,  144-5. 

Prof.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  145-6. 


II       i< 


"The  Sacramextai.  Idea  in  Lutheran  Theology  and  Wor- 
ship." 
First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  146-52. 
Second  Essay  by  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Roller,  D.D.,  152-Gl. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  IL  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  161-3. 
"  "       "      J.  R.  GroH',  163. 

<«  "       "      Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  163. 

"Problems  in  Foreign  Mis^sion  Work,"  by  the  Rev.  George 
Scholl,  D.D.,  164-74. 

"The  Common  Book,"  by  the  Rev.  L.  A.  Vox,  D.D.,  174-84. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  H.  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  184. 

"       "      J.  A.  Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.II.D.,  184-6. 

"Common  Scndav-School  Litekatike,"   by   the   Rev.    L.    L. 
Smith,  186-96. 

"Luthekanism   and  Spirituality,"  by  the   Rev.  E.  K.  Bell, 
D.I).,  19C-205. 

"  Deaconess  Wohk." 

Essay  by  the  Rev.  W.  II.  Dunbar,  D.D.,  205-16. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


ESSAYS  AND  REMARKS— Continued. 

"The  Beginnings  and   Some  Principles  of  the  Deaconess 
Mot  h  er  h  ouse.  " 
Essay  by  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Pa.ssavant,  Jr.,  216-27. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL  D.,  227. 
"       "      Frank  P.  Manhart,  227-9. 
"       "      W.  H.  Dunbar,  D.D.,  229. 
"  "       "      V.  L.  Conrad,  Ph.D.,  229-30. 

"  "       "      W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr.,  230. 

"       "      F.  A.  Kaehler,  230. 

"The  Lutheran  E.-^timate  ok  Ordination." 
First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas,  230-7. 
Second  Essay  by  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Dimra,  D.D.,  237-46. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.  D.,  246. 

"       "      J.  A.  Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.H.D.,247. 
"       "      G.  ^X.  Enders,  D.D.,  248-9. 
"       "      E.T.  Horn,  D.D.,  249. 
"       "      J.  A.  W.  Haas,  250. 
"  "       "      J.  R.  Dimm,  D.D.,  250. 

"The  Standard  of  Ministerial  Education." 

First  Essay  by  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Parson,  D.D.,  250-62. 
Second  Essay  by  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Kaehler,  262-9. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  J.  R.  Dimm,  D.D.,  269-70. 
«'  "       "         "      J.  Fry,  D.D.,  270. 

"  "       "      Geo.  Scholl,  D.D.,  270. 

"  "       "      W.  A.  Pas.savaut,  Jr.,  270-1. 

"       "      F.  J.  F.  Schantz,  D.D.,  27L 
"  "       "      Chas.  S.  Albert,  D.D.,  271. 

"       "      G.  F.  Krotel,D.D.,  LL.D.,  271. 
"       •'      AV.  E.  Pansou,  D.D.,  271. 
"       "      F.  A.  K.iehler,  271. 

''The   Lutheran  Church  and  Modern  Religious  Issues  in 
Germany." 
Essay  by  the  Rev.  A.  G.  Voigt,  D.D.,  272-82. 


8  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

ESSAYS   AND  KEMARKS— Concludkd. 

"The   LiTiiKRAN  Chchch  and  Muderx   Kkligious  Issues  in 
America." 
Essay  by  llie  Rev.  T.  E.  Schniauk,  D.D.,  283-97. 
"The  I'rouleji  of  Co-OrERATiox." 

Essay  by  the  Rev.  M.  AV.  Ilaniina,  D.D.,  297-307. 
Remarks  by  the  Rev.  L.  E.  Albert,  D.D„  307. 

"       "      Prof.  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  D.D.,  308. 
"  "       "      G.  F.  Krotel,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  308-9. 

««  "       "      S.W.  Owen,  D.D.,  309. 

"The  Child  Catechumen  ate." 

Essay  by  the  Rev.  G.  U.  Weuner,  D.D.,  309-321. 

REGISTER  OF  NAMES,  322-25. 
INDEX  OF  PERSONS,  326. 
INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS,  329. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF  LUTHERANS. 


OFFICIAL   ACTION 

AND 

PRELIMINARY   STATEMENT. 


The  General  Confereiice  of  Lutherans  held  in  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,  Deceinl)er  27-29,  1898,  has  passed  into  history  as  an  accom- 
plished fact  of  more  than  ordinary  interest  and  importance  to 
Lutherans  in  this  country.  It  was  the  First  General  Convention 
ever  called  together  by  the  official  action  of  three  of  the  general 
bodies  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 

The  General  Council,  at  its  Twenty-fifth  Convention,  held  at 
Easton,  Pa.,  in  1895,  where  the  General  Synod  was  represented 
by  a  fraternal  visitor  and  the  United  Synod  of  the  South  by  a 
letter  of  fraternal  greeting,  passed  the  following  resolution  : 

"Besolved,  That  this  Council  heartily  approves  and  recommends  the 
holding  of  a  General  Conference  within  the  year  1896  wherel)y,  in  an 
unofticial  way,  there  may  be  a  reading  of  papers  and  a  conij)arison  of 
views,  by  members  if  possible,  of  all  our  General  Bodies,  and  larger 
independent  synods,  on  the  various  doctrinal,  liturgical,  educational 
and  missionary  interests  (including  that  of  Deaconesses)  in  which  all 
are  alike  engaged." 

In  accordance  with  this  resolution,  the  Rev.  Prof  Henry  E. 
Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,  was  appointed  the  Council's  representa- 
tive on  the  joint  committee  to  make  arrangements  for  the  pro- 
posed Conference. 

9 


10  I'HOCEEDIXGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Tlif  (niieral  .Synod,  at  its  Tliirty-eiglith  Convention,  held  at 
Miinfelield,  Oliin,  in  18t»7,endors:cd  tlicuhove  action  of  the  General 
Council,  and  adojjted  the  following  resroluiion  : 

"That  wo  approve  the  rocomim-ndation  of  the  General  Council  that 
a  General  Conference  be  held,  '  whereby,  in  an  unofficial  way,  there 
may  be  a  reading  of  papers  and  a  comparison  of  views  by  members,  if 
possible,  of  all  our  pencral  bodies  and  larger  independent  synods,  on 
the  various  doitriiial,  liturgical,  educational  and  missionary  interests, 
in  which  all  are  alike  engaged.'  And  that  we  approve  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  in  which  Dr.  Jacobs  is  to  represent  the  General 
Council,  Dr.  Lund  the  United  Norwegian  Church,  Dr.  Horn  the 
I'nited  Synod  of  the  S<^)Uth  and  Dr.  Owen  the  General  Synod,  to 
which  all  the  arrangements  for  such  a  Conference  shall  be  entrusted.'' 

The  Rev.  S.  W.  Owen,  I).I).,  of  Hagerstown,  Md.,  was  ap- 
pointed the  General  Synod's  representative  on  the  joint  com- 
raittee. 

The  United  Synod  of  the  South,  at  its  Sixth  Convention, 
held  at  Newberry,  S.  C,  in  1898,  adopted  the  following: 

"Resolvtd,  That  we  approve  the  recommendation  of  the  joint  com- 
mittee for  the  holding  of  a  General  Conference  or  diet,  and  that  Rev. 
H.  F.  Scheele  he  ajipointed  to  represent  this  body  to  co-operate  with 
Dr.  II.  K.  .laeolis  and  Dr.  S.  W.  Owen  in  arranging  for  such  diet." 

At  the  Twenty-sixth  Convention  of  tlic  General  Council,  held 
at  Erie,  Pa.,  in  IMtT,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jacobs  reported  with  reference 
to  the  proposed  General  Conference,  as  follows : 

"The  undersigned  appointed  to  arrange  with  representatives  of 
the  CJeneral  Synod  and  the  United  Syncjd  in  the  South,  a  Gen- 
eral Conference,  to  be  held  in  the  year  18i.)(I,  respectfully  re- 
portH,  that,  although  at  one  time  the  time  and  place  of  said 
meeting  had  be<n  agreed  upon,  the  Committee  found  it  difficult 
to  arrange  the  programme  with  any  prospect  of  providing  for 
attendance  and  discussions  coniniensurate  with  the  results  that 
could  be  justly  anticipated  from  such  a  gathering.  It  was  best, 
therefore,  to  defer  action  until  after  the  other  General  Bodies 
had  fornudly  ajij)roved  the  project.  This  has  betn  done  by 
the  Cieneral  Synod,  and  its  representative,  the  Rev.  Dr.  S.  W. 
Owen,  has  informed  me  of  his  readiness  for  a  meeting  to  arrange 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  1 1 

prelimiuarieis.  As  the  representative  of  the  United  Synod,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Horn,  is  no  longer  a  member  of  that  Body,  and  the 
President  of  the  United  Synod  doubts  his  authority  \vith(iut  ac- 
tion of  the  General  Body,  to  aj>point  a  successor,  the  arrange- 
ments having  been  temporarily  delayed  in  the  expectation  that 
the  United  Synod,  at  its  approaching  meeting,  will  provide  for 
its  representation.  AVe  would  respectfully  suggest  that  a  small 
committee  of  laymen  be  appointed,  with  authority  to  add  to 
their  number  representative  laymen  of  the  other  bodies  proposing 
to  participate,  for  the  purpose  of  gatheiing  a  fund  for  the 
necessary  expenses  of  said  Conference." 

This  report  was  adopted  and  a  committee  of  laymen  with 
power  to  add  to  their  number,  was  appointed  to  provide  a  fund 
for  the  General  Conference.  Dr.  Jacobs  was  continued  as  our 
member  of  the  committee,  with  Dr.  T.  E.  Schmauk,  as  alternate. 

The  joint  committee  thus  constituted,  issued  the  following  pre- 
liminary statement,. during  the  Summer  of  1898: 

The  three  general  bodies  representing  the  Evangelical  Lu- 
theran Church  in  this  country,  having  taken  action  concerning 
the  holding  of  a  Free  Conference  in  the  near  future,  appointed 
each  a  representative  to  carry  forward  this  project.  Rev.  Henry 
E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  was  appointed  by  the  General  Council ;  Rev.  S. 
W.  Owen,  D.D.,  by  the  General  Synod,  and  Rev.  PI.  F.  Scheele, 
D.D.,  by  the  United  Synod  of  the  South. 

This  committee  met  at  the  Blue  Mountain  House,  Maryland, 
July  27,  and  organized,  electing  Dr.  Jacobs,  chairman,  and  Dr. 
Owen,  secretary  of  the  committee.  They  determined  to  ask  the 
use  of  St.  Matthew^s  and  St.  John's  Churches,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
in  which  to  hold  the  sessions  of  Conference,  and  selected  Decem- 
ber 27-29,  1898,  as  the  time.  A  program  was  also  arranged. 
In  order  to  pay  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  essayists  and  other 
necessary  expenses  of  the  committee  it  was  estimated  that  §400 
would  be  needed.  Of  this  amount  Dr.  Scheele  assumed,  for  the 
United  Synod  of  the  South,  S75,  and  the  General  Council  as- 
sumed $165,  leaving  $160  to  be  raised  in  the  General  Synod. 
The  General  CVuncil,  at  its  meeting  in  Erie,  Pa,,  October  14-20, 


12  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

1898,  appointotl  a  conimittee  of  laymen  for  the  ])urpose  of  se- 
curing a  fund  for  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  Conference.  The 
foHowing  persons  constitute  that  comniittee :  ^lessrs.  William 
H.  Hengerer,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  chairman ;  "William  H.  Staake,  of 
rhila(KIphia,  Pa.,  treasurer;  Oliver  Williams,  Catasauqua,  Pa., 
and  Charles  Sehimmelfeng,  Warren,  I'a.  On  the  part  of  the 
General  Synod  the  following  Finance  Committee  has  been  ap- 
pointed: Messrs.  J.  G.  C.  Taddiken,  New  York  City;  W.  C 
Stoever,  Philadelphia,  Pa. ;  A.  F.  Fox,  AVashington,  D.  C,  and 
AV.  F.  A.  Kemp,  M.D.,  of  Baltimore. 

The  ])rogram  will  doubtless  be  i)rinted  when  finally  arranged. 
Dr.  W.  S.  Freas,  of  Baltimore,  Md,,  and  Dr.  S.  E.  Ochsenford, 
of  Selin's  Grove,  Pa.,  have  been  appointed  secretaries  of  the  Con- 
ference. 

The  proposed  Conference  being  ai)proved,  not  only  with  sub- 
stantial unanimity,  but  with  enthusiasm,  by  the  three  general 
bodies,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  it  will 
])rove  to  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the 

United  States. 

S.  ^Y.  Owen, 

Secretary  of  Committee. 

Subsequently  the  Chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee  issued 
the  following: 

CALL  OF  THE  CONVENTION. 

The  General  Conference  appointed  by  the  joint  action  of  the 
General  Council,  General  Synod  and  the  United  Synod  of  the 
South,  will  convene  in  Philadelphia,  December  27-29th,  and  be 
opened  by  Divine  Service  and  a  sermon  by  Rev.  Joseph  A. 
Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,  in  St.  John's  church,  Rev.  E.  E.  Sibole, 
D.D.,  pa.stor,  Tuesday,  December  27th,  at  10  a.  m. 

The  sessions  of  the  Conference  will  be  held  on  Tuesday,  Decem- 
ber 27th,  in  St.  John's  church  and  on  the  succeeding.?  days 
in  St  Matthew's  church,  Broad  and  Mt.  Vernon  streets,  Rev. 
Win.  M.  Baum,  D.D.,  pastor. 

Henry  E.  Jacobs, 

Chairman  of  Committee. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  13 

This  was  followed  by  the  aunouncenient  by  the  secretary  of 
the  Committee  of  the 

PROGRAM. 

Tuesday  Mornikg,  December  27th,  1898.  10  a.  m.,  diviue 
service,  with  a  sermon  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

After  service  the  conference  will  convene.  The  members  of 
the  committee  will  preside  in  rotation,  and  conduct  the  conft-r- 
ence  according  to  the  rules,  for  which  they  are  responsible  to  the 
bodies  that  appointed  them.  Rev.  W.  S.  Freas,  D.D.,  of  Balti- 
more, Md.,  and  Rev.  S.  E.  Ochsenford,  D.D.,  of  Selin's  Grove, 
Pa.,  will  be  the  secretaries.  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Staake,  of  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  has  been  appointed  treasurer. 

The  opening  address  will  be  made  by  the  chairman  of  the 
committee.  Rev.  Henry  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  and  the  rules  under 
which  the  conference  shall  proceed  will  be  read. 

Tuesday,  2  p.  m..  Rev.  H.  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  presiding.  Topic: 
"  Our  Common  Historical  Antecedents."  First  paper,  Rev.  E. 
J.  Wolf,  D.J).  Second  paper,  Rev.  J.  Nicum,  D.D.  3:30, 
topic :  "  The  Doctrine  and  Forms  of  Prayer,"  Rev.  E.  T.  Horn, 
D.D.  4:15,  topic:  "The  Child  Catechuraenate,"  Rev.  G.  U. 
Wenner,  D.D. 

Tuesday,  8  p.  m.,  topic  :  "Our  Educational  Institutions."  1. 
Rev.  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  D.D.     2.  Rev.  S.  A.  Ort,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Wednesday,  9  a.  m.,  Rev.  S.  AV.  Owen,  D.D.,  presiding. 
Topic:  "  The  Scope  and  Limitation  of  Church  Authority."  1. 
Rev.  D.  H.  Bauslin,  D.D.  2.  Rev.  G.  F.  Krotel,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
10:25,  topic:  "  The  Sacramental  Idea  in  Lutheran  Theology  and 
Worship.'  1.  Rev.  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.  2.  Rev.  J.  C.  Roller, 
D.D,  11:30,  topic:  "Problems  in  Foreign  Mission  Work," 
Rev.  Geo.  Scholl,  D.D. 

Wednesday,  2  p.  m.,  topic  :  "  The  Common  Book,"  Rev.  L. 
A.  Fox,  D.D. ;  topic:  "Common  Sunday-school  Literature," 
Rev.  L.L.  Smith.  3  p.  m.,  topic  :  "  Lutheranism  and  Spirituality," 
Rev.  E.  K.  Bell,  D.D.  3:30,  topic:  "Deaconess  Work."  1. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Dunbar,  D.D.     2.  Rev.  W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr. 

Thursday,  9  a.m.,  Rev.  H.  F.  Scheele,  presiding.  Topic: 
"Lutheran  Estimate  of  Ordination."     1,  Rev,  J.  A.  W.  Haas. 


14  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

2.  Rev.  J.  R.  Diniin,  D.D.  10:30,  topic:  "Standards  of  Minis- 
terial Education."  1.  Rev.  AV.  E.  Parson,  D.D.  2.  Rev.  F. 
A.  Kaeliler. 

Thursday,  2  r.  m.,  topic :  "  The  Lutheran  Church  and  Mo- 
dern Religious  Issues."  1.  In  Germany,  Rev.  A.  C-  Voigt, 
D.D.  2.  In  America.  Rev.  T.  E.  Schmauk,  D.D.  3  p.m., 
topic :  "  The  Problem  of  Co-operation,"  Rev.  M.W.  Hamma,  D.D. 

RULES. 

The  following  rules  have  been  adopted  by  the  committee  to  be 
observed  in  the  Conference  of  Lutherans  to  be  held  in  Philadel- 
phia, December  27  to  29,  1898 : 

1.  All  members  of  tlie  three  general  bodies  that  have 
authorized  the  calling  of  the  Conference  to  have  the  privilege  of 
j)articii)ating  in  its  proceedings. 

2.  The  Committee  of  Arrangements,  being  responsible  to  the 
general  bodies  that  appointed  them  for  the  conduct  of  the  Con- 
ference, will  decide  all  questions  that  may  arise,  and  will  preside 
over  the  proceedings. 

3.  All  essayists  shall  be  limited  to  thirty  minutes,  and  this 
rule  shall  be  strictly  enforced. 

4.  No  speech  in  the  discussion  shall  exceed  ten  minutes;  nor 
shall  any  speaker  be  recognized  a  second  time  in  the  discussion  of 
any  one  topic  while  the  privilege  of  the  floor  is  claimed  by  others 
who  have  not  spoken.  The  essayist  shall,  in  all  cases,  have  the 
privilege  of  closing  the  discussion  on  his  own  paper 

5.  No  vote  to  be  taken  on  any  of  the  topics  under  discussion, 
and  all  propositions  and  motions  made  in  Conference  shall  be 
submitted  to  the  committee,  which,  at  its  discretion,  may  refer 
them  back  to  the  Conference  for  decision. 

H.  All  papers  read  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  committee  for 
publication. 

The  members  of  the  committee  are  Rev.  Henry  E.  Jacobs, 
D.D.,  General  Council ;  Rev.  S.  W.  Owen,  D.D  ,  General  Synod  ; 
Rev.  H.  F.  Scheele,  D.D.,  United  Synod  of  the  South. 

S.  W.  Owen, 

Secretary  of  Committee. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  15 

These  announcements  were  followed  by  another  statement, 
issued  by  the  secretary  of  the  committee,  as  follows : 

We  desire  to  again  call  the  attention  of  the  Church  to  the  im- 
portance of  making  contribution  toward  the  necessary  expenses  of 
the  Conference  to  be  held  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Dec.  27  to  29, 1898. 

The  Committee  of  Arrangements  determined  to  try  to  secure  a 
sufficient  amount  of  money  to  pay  the  traveling  expenses  of  the 
essayists  To  do  this  would,  in  the  judgment  of  the  committeei 
require  at  least  S400.  Each  representative  of  the  three  general 
bodies  assumed  a  certain  portion  of  the  total  amount.  A  com- 
mittee on  finance  was  appointed,  consisting  of  four  brethren  in  the 
General  Council  and  four  in  the  General  Synod.  The  members 
of  this  committee,  on  the  part  of  the  General  Council,  are  Messrs. 
William  H.  Hengerer,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  chairman  ;  W.  H.  Staake, 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  treasurer ;  Oliver  Williams,  Catasauqua,  Pa. ; 
and  Charles  Schimmelfeng,  Warren,  Pa.  On  the  part  of  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  the  following  brethren  have  been  named:  Messrs.  J.  G. 
C.  Taddiken,  No.  332  West  Forty-sixth  Street,  New  York  City 
William  C.  Stoever,  No.  727  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dr.  W.  F.  A.  Kemp,  No.  305  North  Green  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 
and  Albert  F.  Fox,  Columbia  National  Bank,  Washington,  D.  C. 

All  friends  of  the  Conference  in  the  General  Synod  are  earn- 
estly solicited  to  contribute  toward  these  necessary  expenses. 
Contributions  can  be  sent  to  either  of  the  above-named  brethren, 
or  to  me,  and  the  same  will  be  paid  over  to  the  treasurer. 

Pastors  are  requested  to  bring  this  matter  to  the  attention  of 
their  congregations.  It  is  feared  that  S-tOO  will  hardly  cover  the 
expenses. 

A  most  cordial  invitation  is  extended  to  all  ministers  and  laymen 
to  attend  this  Conference.   A  whole-hearted  welcome  awaits  them. 

It  will  be  a  most  auspicious  event  in  the  history  of  the  Luth- 
eran Church  in  this  country.  It  has  been  endorsed  and  ordered 
by  the  three  general  bodies  represented.  We  l)elieve  it  is  of  "the 
Lord's  doing,"  and,  with  His  blessing,  the  result  will,  no  doubt,  be 
"  marvelous  in  our  eyes." 

S.  W.  OwEX, 

Secretary  of  C9niiniitee. 


16  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

We  i)rcscnt  in  this  connection,  a  statement  by  the  Chairman  of 
the  committee  on 

THE  AIM  OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 

Arrangements  have  at  last  been  made  for  the  liolding  of  the 
General  Conference  provided  for  by  the  resolution  of  the  General 
Council  at  Easton  in  1895,  and  subsequently  approved  by  the 
General  Synod  and  United  Synod  of  the  South.  It  can  scarcely 
be  called  a  "  Free  Conference,"  as  its  privileges  will  be  accorded 
only  members  of  those  bodies  that  have  united  in  its  convo- 
cation, and  its  proceedings  will  be  conducted  according  to  rules 
laid  down  by  the  committee  whose  members  are  resjjousible,  each 
to  his  own  body,  for  the  character  of  the  deliberations.  xSo 
resolutions  on  any  topic  discussed  can  be  passed,  nor  can  any 
proposition  be  entertained  unless  the  committee  have  first  ap- 
proved it.  It  ditiers  from  the  Diets  of  1877  and  1878,  by  being 
an  officially  recognized  and  ordered  meeting,  while  they  were 
entirely  individual  matters. 

The  Conference  is  intended  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  better 
understanding  and  a  more  harmonious  co-operation  among  the 
Lutherans  in  the  bodies  named.  It  will  provide  for  doctrinal 
discussions:  but  not  for  these  exclusively,  provision  l)eing  made 
also,  as  the  General  Council  directed,  for  the  consideration  of 
practical  questions.  A  number  of  papers  will  be  read  and  oppor- 
tunity be  given  for  a  brief  interchange  of  opinion  upon  them.  .  .  . 
It  has  been  the  feeling  of  the  cdmniittee  that  in  case  this  Con- 
ference be  approved  by  the  general  judgment  of  the  Church,  the 
way  will  be  prepared  for  other  conferences  at  other  places  in 
which  a  still  wider  scope  of  representation  will  be  provided  for. 
...  In  determining  the  details,  the  committee  has  acted  with 
entire  [unanimity.  They  have  endeavored  to  carry  out  the 
instructions  they  have  received  from  their  general  bodies.  The 
holding  of  the  Conference  is  by  the  unanimous  action  of  these 
bodies.  The  committee  has  not  been  in  haste  in  fulfilling  its 
instructions.  The  time  has  passed  for  considering  the  expediency 
of  the  proposition.  The  Church,  therefore,  expects  the  heartiest 
co-operation  of  all  in  this  project  that  has  beeii  so  long  in  pro.-pect. 


ST.  JOHN'S  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  CHURCH, 

Race  Street  below  Sixth,   Pliiladelf)hia,  Pa. 
kev.  E.  E-  SIBOI.E,  D.  D.,  I'astor. 


THE   OPENING   SERVICE. 


The  General  Conference  of  Lutherans,  representing  the  General 
Synod,  General  Council  and  United  Synod  of  the  South,  was 
opened  in  St.  John's  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  Race  street, 
below  Sixth  street,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on  Tuesday,  December  27, 
1898,  at  10  A.M.,  with  Divine  Service,  in  presence  of  a  respecta- 
ble number  of  Lutherans,  clerical  and  lay,  who  had  come  from 
various  parts  of  the  country  to  be  present  at  the  opening  service 
of  this  important  convention.  St.  John's  is  the  oldest  English 
congregation  in  the  country,  having  been  organized  in  1806,  and 
has  had  only  three  pastors, — the  Kev.  Phillip  F.  Mayer,  D.D., 
1806-1858;  the  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Seiss,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.H.D., 
1858-1875;  and  the  Rev.  Edward  E.  Sibole,  D.D.,  who  has 
been  serving  the  congregation  since  April  22,  1875.  In  the 
opening  service  of  the  Conference,  the  Rev.  S.  E.  Ochsenford, 
D.D.,  of  Selin's  Grove,  Pa.,  conducted  the  liturgical  service,  and 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Jos.  A.  Seiss,  of  Philadelphia,  preached  the  sermon, 
based  on  Ephesians  4:  1-6.     Following  is  the  sermon: 

THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Grace  unto  you,  and  peace  from  God  our  Father,  and  from  our 
Lord  Jems  Christ. 

Dearly  Beloved,  Fathers,  Brethren,  and  Friends: 

In  discharging  the  duty  assigned  me  for  the  opening  of  this 
marked  Convention,  I  invite  your  attention  to  the  first  part  of  the 
2  17 


18  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

fuurtli  cliai»tt'r  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Epliesians,  Mhcre  the  great 
Apostle  writes : 

"  I  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that  ye  walk 
worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  have  been  called,  with  all  lowli- 
ness and  nieekncs^s,  with  longsullcring,  forbearing  one  another  in 
love ;  endeavoring  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. 
There  is  one  body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of 
your  calling  ;  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  Baptism,  one  God  and  Father 
of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all." — Eph.  4 :  1-6. 

Two  leading  topics  are  here  presented  to  our  contemplation : 
Tlie  True  Unity  of  the  Church,  and  What  that  Unity  Demands  of  Us. 

God  liel})  us  to  apprehend  them  aright,  and  to  profit  by  the 
truth ! 

The  Ciiurch  is  the  community  of  saints,  inclusive  of  all  true 
Christian?,  of  all  nations  and  agts.  This  Church  is  here  described 
as  one,— "  one  body;"  and  it  becomes  us  to  inquire  therein  this 
oneness  consists.  The  question  is  very  important ;  and  to  reach 
a  proper  answer,  it  may  be  justly  said : 

The  Unity  of  the  Church  is  not  territorial — not  national ;  for 
the  Church  of  Christ  is  not  limited  to  any  one  country  or  conti- 
nent. It  extends  beyond  all  geographical  boundaries,  and  exists 
in  widely  separated  sections  of  the  earth. 

Neither  does  the  Unity  of  the  Church  consist  in  uniformity  of 
ceremonies  or  external  regulati(ms,  whether  liturgical,  legislative, 
or  executive.  There  is,  indeed,  that  which  constitutes  its  being, 
and  which  does  not  admit  of  change;  but  there  is  still  nmch 
that  may  be  externally  variant.  There  have  been,  and  are, 
many  genuine  Christians,  under  differing  forms  of  outward  gov- 
ernment and  administration ;  and  it  is  (juite  agreed  that  traditions, 
rites,  or  orders  instituted  by  men,  need  not  be  everywhere  the 
same.  Under  many  names,  conditions,  and  denominational  and 
territorial  organizations,  the  Church  of  Christ  has  existed,  and 
still  exists, — not  always  and  everywhere  in  the  same  i)erfection 
and  efficiency,  but  in  sufficient  integrity  to  beget  and  nourish 
children  of  God. 

Nfitlier  iloes  the  Unity  of  tlie  Church  consist  in  perfect  identity 
of  thougiit,  expression,  and  details  of  interpretation  and  belief. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  19 

Differences  of  this  kind  have  existed  ^vithin  the  Church  in  every 
age,  not  excepting  the  first.  Tliere  is  an  essential  faith,  whicli 
is  everyAvhere  and  always  the  same;  but  different  minds  approach 
it  from  different  directions,  view  it  from  diflTerent  standpoints, 
and  see  it  in  different  lights.  It  was  so  among  the  apostles  them- 
selves, and  will  be  so  while  the  present  condition  of  human  na- 
ture remains.  Nor  are  differences  of  this  kind  to  be  rashly  con- 
demned. They  may  even  be  useful,  and  serve  to  bring  out  more 
clearly  the  many-sidedness  of  God's  truth.  Paul  and  James 
supplement  each  other ;  and  Paul's  controversy  with  Peter 
helped  to  the  settlement  of  a  great  question.  The  clashings  of 
theological  thought  often  disturb  the  Church's  peace,  but  without 
destroying  its  unity,  or  imperiling  its  being.  Storms  help  to  clear 
the  atmosphere;  and  perfect  coincidence  of  view,  while  not 
essential  to  the  Church's  oneness,  is  liable  to  breed  stagnation  and 
death, 

Nor  does  the  Unity  of  the  Church  consist  in  undisturbed  affec- 
tion, practical  harmony,  and  unbroken  accord  between  the  var- 
ious members  or  sections.  Brothers  in  the  same  family  are 
brothers,  whether  they  quarrel  or  agree.  Real  Christians  are 
joint  partakers  of  the  same  divine  nature,  and  so  are  members  of 
the  body  of  Christ,  whether  they  acknowledge  one  another  or  not. 
They  may  refuse  outward  inter-communion  ;  but  in  so  far  as  they 
are  Christians  at  all,  there  remains  an  inward  oneness  in  Christ 
in  spite  of  all  personal  and  party  alienations,  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas disagreed,  even  to  a  somewhat  violent  parting  asunder ; 
but  they  still  were  efficient  apostolic  members  and  servants  of 
the  one  true  Church  of  Christ,  and  perhaps  more  efficient  and 
useful  because  of  the  separation.  Indeed,  nothing  dependent  on 
man,  or  man's  endeavors,  enters  into  the  essential  Unity  of  the 
Church. 

These  statements  I  take  to  be  clear  and  incontrovertible. 

We  come,  then,  to  the  more  positive  answer  to  our  question, 
in  which  the  text  furnishes  an  ample  guide. 

It  is  here  to  be  noted,  first  of  all,  that  the  apostle  presents  the 
Unity  of  the  Church  as  "  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit"  This  is  not 
always  rightly  perceived.     He  does  not  mean  a  mere  man-made 


20  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

agreement,  or  a  common  spiritual  accord  depending  on  the 
mutual  consent  of  man  ;  but  a  unity  originating  with,  and  con- 
stituted by,  the  Holy  Ghost, — a  unity  of  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
is  the  potent  factor, — a  unity  which  external  conditions,  ar- 
rangements, or  diversities  do  not  make  or  destroy.  Tlie  Church 
does  not  first  come  into  being,  and  then  form  itself  into  a  spiritual 
corporation  by  human  wisdom  and  endeavor.  All  true  Chris- 
tians are  "  born  of  the  Spirit,"  and  tlius  come  into  the  family  of 
believers  from  the  start.  That  which  makes  them  Christians, 
at  the  same  time  makes  them  members  of  the  one  body,  whatever 
else  may  be  true  of  them.  Having  become  members  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  they  are  from  the  first  and  always  one  with  all 
believers  in  Christ,  and  nothing  can  augment  the  reality  of  that 
oneness,  or  more  essentially  differentiate  them  from  all  other 
people  The  external  conditions,  or  the  particular  outward 
forms  and  surroundings  in  which  spiritual  is  life  generated,  may 
be  so  different  in  different  cases  and  communities  as  to  conceal 
the  visible  tokens  of  the  oneness,  and  yet  the  true  oneness  exist. 
Indeed,  we  can  never  surely  know,  from  outward  signs,  who  of 
the  various  outwardly  professing  Christians  are  of  the  true  interior 
Church.  There  are  certain  external  marks  and  notes  shown  in 
the  preaching  and  confession  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments,  by  which  we  may  know  where  the  Church 
is;  but  just  who  of  its  visible  members  are  inwardly  and  truly  of 
the  community  of  saints,  these  marks  and  notes  do  not  and  can 
not  determine.  We  know  no  Churcli  a])art  from  these  external 
marks  and  signs ;  for  the  internal,  spiritual  and  invisible  being 
of  the  Church  is  not  separable  from  visible  men  and  women,  or 
from  the  use  of  outward  means  of  grace  through  which  its  spiritual 
members  are  begotten.  Nevertheless,  the  Church  may  be  present 
in  outward  showing,  while  those  who  appear  as  members  may  be 
no  real  part  of  Christ's  mystical  body.  The  true  Unity  of  the 
Church  is,  therefore,  sometiiing  much  more  inward  and  spiritual 
than  the  notes  and  marks  by  which  its  presence  is  externally 
indicated.  It  is  mainly  in  the  realm  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of 
the  Holy  Si)irit's  work,  that  the  Unity  of  the  Cliurch  has  its  being. 
And  yet  it  is  a  substantial  reality,  and  not  a  mere  shadowy 


PEOCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  21 

dream.    It  has  its  own  life  and  embodiment  in  certain  particulars 
which  tlie  apostle  here  sets  forth. 

1.  It  is  a  unity  of  sjnritual  corjwrat'ion.  "  There  is  one  body." 
It  is  a  real  and  true  body — a  society  of  living  men,  women  and 
children,  joined  together,  it  may  be,  in  outward  fellowship,  but 
more  really  in  a  mystic  organism.  The  members  are  many,  and 
the  particular  groups  of  members  may  be  many,  with  all  the 
earthly  diversities  of  nation,  language,  clime,  age,  culture,  and 
estate ;  but  one  family  nevertheless,  begotten  of  the  one  Holy 
Ghost,  and  built  into  the  one  spiritual  edifice.  "  For  as  we  have 
many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  members  have  not  the  same 
office,  so  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ."  Some  have 
higlier  place  and  greater  honor  than  others ;  but  all  together  are 
one  mystical  corporation,  one  body. 

2.  The  Unity  of  the  Church  is  a  oneness  of  soiil,  or  life.  There 
is  "  One  Spirit,"  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  which  men  are  quickened 
into  life  to  God  and  heaven.  There  may  be  mnny  spirits  by 
which  people  are  influenced  and  animated  ;  but  there  is  only  one 
Holy  Spirit,  and  one  life  to  that  Spirit.  All  Christians  have  not  the 
same  gifts,  or  in  the  same  degree ;  yet  all  are  animated  by  one 
life,  from  one  and  the  self-same  Spirit.  Children  do  not  more 
really  live  the  life  they  derive  from  their  parents,  than  all  true 
members  of  the  Church  live  the  one  life  from  the  one  Spirit. 
And  the  Church  is  one,  because  it  has  this  one  soul,  and  lives  this 
one  generic  life. 

3.  Tiie  Unity  of  the  Church  is  furthermore  a  oneness  of  hope. 
"  Even  as  ye  are  called  in  One  Hope  of  your  calling."  The 
purpose  of  grace  is  one,  even  the  recovery  of  sinners  from  death 
and  condemnation  to  salvation  and  eternal  life.  There  Is  no 
Gospel  call  but  this ;  and  there  is  no  true  answer  to  that  call, 
except  to  this  end.  Varied  and  unspeakable  are  the  blessings 
promised  to  the  willing  and  obedient ;  but  whether  or  not  they 
are  all  defiaitely  understood,  or  specifically  contemplated,  there 
is  this  one  goal  to  which  all  true  Christians  look  and  aspire. 
And  this  one  hope  of  their  calling  furnishes  another  feature  of 
their  oneness  in  Christ,  the  oneness  of  the  Church. 

4.  But  the  Unity  of  the  Church  is  likewise  a  unity  of  headship. 


22  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

"  One  Lord."  There  be  lords  innnv  ;  "  but  to  us,"  saitli  the 
apostle,  "  there  is  one  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,"  who  is  "  the  Head 
over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is  His  body."  People 
greatly  differ  in  their  views  of  Christ.  Some  assign  to  Him  a 
character,  place,  office  and  relation  to  His  people,  very  diverse 
from  what  others  hold  and  believe.  But  Christ  is  not  so  elastic 
as  to  be  whatever  men  may  make  of  Him.  Some  may  appre- 
hend Him  with  greater  fullness  and  perfection  of  faith  and 
understanding  than  others ;  but  He  is  not  God  to  one,  God-man 
to  another,  and  a  mere  superior  creature  to  a  third.  So  far  as 
He  is  savingly  apprehended  by  any.  He  is  One,  "  the  same  yes- 
terday, to-day,  and  for  ever,"  identical  in  nature  and  office  to 
the  view  of  all  entitled  to  be  named  by  His  name.  The  Ciuirch 
knows  but  one  Lord  Jesus,  the  Messiah  of  prophecy,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,  sacrificed  on  Calvary  for  the  sin  of  the  world, 
risen  from  the  dead,  alive  for  evermore,  exalted  to  the  right  hand 
of  eternal  ISLojesty,  clothed  with  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth  ; 
and  who,  having  loved  the  Church,  and  given  Himself  for  it,  is 
ever  with  it,  to  direct,  command,  and  help  it  by  His  Spirit,  Word 
and  Ordinances,  till  perfected,  and  brought  into  everlasting 
union  with  Himself.  And  as  there  is  no  Church  where  this 
Christ  is  not  preached,  accepted  and  honored  as  its  living  Head, 
so  the  Church  is  one  by  its  acknowledgment  of  Him,  and  union 
with  Him. 

5.  Hence  also,  the  Unity  of  the  Church  is  a  unity  of  belief. 
With  its  One  Lord,  it  has  but  "  One  faith,"  by  which  He  is 
apprehended,  confessed  and  confided  in.  Unity  of  faith  is  essen- 
tial to  "  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit."  And  the  Christian  faith  is  a 
specific  and  definite  faith, — a  faith  that  takes  account  of  what  it 
believes,  and  holds  firmly  to  it.  The  chief  substance  of  the  One 
Faith  has  its  centre  in  adoring  love  of  Christ.  This  sums  up 
everything.  There  may  be  weaknesses  and  mistakes  here  or 
there,  or  even  interminglings  of  superstition,  much  to  be  lamented, 
and  by  no  means  to  be  ignored,  which  still  may  not  entirely  dis- 
able saving  faith,  or  totally  exclude  from  the  family  of  believers. 
A  diseased  man,  or  one  mutilated  in  some  non-vital  part,  is  still 
a  man,  though  without  perfect  physical  manhood ;  and  one  can 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  23 

be  a  true  member  of  Christ,  along  with  many  imperfections,  pro- 
vided the  soul  duly  understands  and  firmly  and  lovingly  holds 
to  the  true  Clirist  as  its  hope  and  salvation.  But,  from  this  there 
can  be  no  let-down  or  abridgment  without  total  loss  of  Christian 
standing.  Every  living  man  or  woman  who  would  be  saved 
must  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  What  saith  the  Scrip- 
ture ?  "  He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him."  And  as  every  true  part  of  the 
Church  must  have  this  faith,  the  Church  is  one  in  the  unchange- 
able oneness  of  its  essential  creed. 

6.  Still  further,  the  Unity  of  the  Church  is  a  unity  of  the  official 
marking  of  its  members.  "One  Baptism."  By  Christ's  own  ap- 
pointment and  command,  a  vital  part  in  the  work  of  making  dis- 
ciples is,  "baptizing  them."  According  to  Him  there  is  no  way 
of  making  disciples  with  Baptism  omitted.  Whatever  else  people 
may  be  or  possess,  they  are  not,  and  cannot  be,  regular  Christians 
without  Christian  Baptism.  Some  may  look  upon  it  as  a  mere 
outward  and  empty  ceremony  ;  but  all  the  great  things  of  the 
covenant  of  salvation  are  connected  with  it,  and  signified  and 
sealed  by  it.  To  reject  Bajrtism  is  to  reject  the  seal  of  the  cove- 
nant. It  is  the  divinely  instituted  act  of  initiation  into  the  king- 
dom— one  of  the  visible  marks  of  the  invisible  Church.  Many 
receive  it  outwardly  who  never  reach  approved  citizensliip,  be- 
cause deficient  in  other  particulars  ;  but,  so  far  as  concerns  us, 
no  one  can  be  scripturally  counted  in  with  the  proper  Church  of 
God  who  refuses  washing  in  this  heaven-ordained  "laver  of  regen- 
eration." Where  Baptism  into  the  Name  of  the  Father,  Sou, 
and  Holy  Ghost  goes,  there  the  Church  is;  and  where  that  is  not, 
the  Church  is  not.  And  by  this  one  sacred  Baptism  and  oflicial 
marking  of  its  members,  the  Unity  of  the  Church  is  shown,  and 
its  external  boundaries  determined. 

7.  And  yet  once  more,  the  Unity  of  the  Church  is  a  unity  of 
worship,  especially  in  the  object  of  that  worship.  Its  Liturgies 
have  varied  somewhat  in  different  ages  and  nations,  but  never  in 
essential  substance,  or  in  the  supreme  object  of  its  adoration : 
"  One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all, 
and  in  all."     Jesus  differentiated  the  Church's  worship  from  all 


24  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Other  worships,  when  He  said  to  the  womau  of  Samaria,  "  Ye 
worship  ye  know  not  what;  we  know  what  we  worship,— the  true 
worshippers  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  And  in 
this  worshij),  the  Church  of  Clirist  is  ever  one. 

Sublime  is  the  majesty  and  glory  of  Him  whom  the  Church 
worships  and  adores. 

"  God  !"     Who  can  fathom  the  full  meaning  of  that  one  little 

word  ? 

And  Father  of  all!  What  an  unbounded  paternity  of  almighty 
power  and  origination  is  thus  expressed ! 

Who  is  above  all!  There  be  many  great  and  high  things  in 
the  universe, — many  quite  over-reaching  our  comprehension  and 
highest  thought,— but  He  whom  the  Church  worshijis  is  above 
them  all,  their  Creator,  their  Ruler,  their  eternal  Originator  and 
their  Lord. 

"And  through  all!" — confined  to  no  place,  in  time  or  space, 
but  present  everywhere,  in  all  the  fullness  of  His  unsearchable 

Being. 

"And  in  all!"  In  the  faith,  the  experiences,  the  assemblies, 
the  hopes,  and  the  hearts  of  all  His  people,  and  in  the  govern- 
ment and  direction  of  all  things,  visible  and  invisible. 

"One  God!"  One  only;  Imt  a  Tri-uuity,— God  the  Father, 
God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  also  recognized  in  this 
text;  not  three  Gods,  but  one  God;  for  the  Godhead  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  all  one,  the 
glory  equal,  the  majesty  co-eternal.  The  Unity  in  Trinity,  and 
the  Trinity  in  Unity,  is  the  One,  revealed,  true  and  only  God. 
And  in  the  sole  and  devout  adoration  and  worship  of  this  God, 
the  Church's  Unity  has  its  crown  and  highest  fullucKs. 

Having  thus  briefly  indicated  the  true  Oneness  of  the  Church, 
although  without  having  at  all  exhausted  the  subject,  we  now 
come  to  nott'.  What  this  Unity  demands  of  us. 

Here  observe  again,  that  the  apostle  contemplates  the  Church's 
Oneness  as  something  created  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  not  as  a 
thing  to  be  made,  or  brought  about,  by  human  activities  or  en- 
deavors. 

The  thought  is  not  that  it  devolves  on  us  to  work  up  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  25 

Church  into  oneness.  That  is  no  more  in  our  power  tlian  it  is 
in  the  power  of  brothers  to  make  themselves  chiklren  of  their 
father.  The  oneness  is  already  presupposed  as  the  basis  and 
ground  of  the  admonitions  given.  And  on  this  ground  alone  do 
they  have  their  ap])licability  and  force. 

To  what,  then,  would  the  Apostle  have  us  direct  our  efforts,  if 
not  to  the  making  of  the  Church  a  visible  organic  unity  ?  The 
words  are  plain.  The  entreaty  is,  that  we  w-alk  worthy  of  the 
vocation  wherewith  we  have  been  called  into  this  invisible  Unity 
of  the  Spirit,  and  show  that  we  are  one  with  all  believers  in  our 
behavior  toward  one  another.  What  exists  in  spiritual  fact, 
the  Apostle  would  have  us  personally  illustrate  and  exhibit  in 
external  walk,  by  diligent  endeavor  to  keep  the  pe^^ce.  Having 
been  graciously  brought  into  the  sacred  brotherhood  of  be- 
lievers, the  idea  is  that  we  scandalize  our  profession  if  we  do  not 
try  to  live  in  amity  with  one  another.  That  may  not  always  be 
feasable.  In  the  present  condition  of  humanity,  offences  will 
come.  Hence  the  direction  to  endeavor,  that  is,  to  exert  ourselves 
Avith  earnestness,  to  have  our  spiritual  oneness  as  Christians  ap- 
pear also  in  outward  behavior  and  temper.  Because  the  real 
Church  is  one  body  in  Christ,  it  is  our  business  to  aim  at  showing  it 
by  external  harmony  and  peace.  Organic  union  is  not  the  matter 
in  point.  The  meaning  is,  that,  having  become  brethren  and  fellow- 
citizens  in  the  sublimest  of  spiritual  unities,  it  is  to  be  to  us  an  in- 
violable bond  and  stimulus  to  do  all  we  can  to  keep  the  peace. 

And  in  order  to  succeed  in  this,  the  Apostle  specifies  certain 
qualities  of  temper  and  behavior  to  be  observed  and  cultivated. 

Ail  lowliness  is  named.  Nothing  is  more  out  of  place,  or  more 
ruinous  to  the  Church's  quiet  and  prosperity,  than  an  uplifted, 
pretentious  and  vain-glorious  spirit,  AVhere  there  is  a  proud 
vaunting  of  self  or  party,  and  the  putting  forth  of  an  inflated 
loftiness  which  looks  down  upon  others  as  unworthy  of  recog- 
nition, the  bond  of  peace  cannot  hold.  Differences  and  conten- 
tions are  not  always  avoidable ;  but  it  will  not  do  for  Christians 
to  be  imperious  and  harsh  in  their  judgments  and  condemnations, 
particuLarly  as  the  error  to  be  corrected  may  not  all  be  on  one 
side.    There  needs  to  be  moderation  and  lowliness,  as  over  against 


26  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  claim  of  being  the  ouly  model  saints,  with  whose  standards 
all  must  fully  accord,  or  accept  auathema. 

3Ieeknc.'>ii  is  named.  This  does  not  refer  so  much  to  a  soft  and 
yielding  disposition,  and  the  bridling  of  a  passionate  nature,  as  to 
submissiveness  under  ill  treatment,  and  the  quiet  commitment  of 
ourselves  into  the  hand  of  God,  trusting  to  His  good  providence 
for  our  vindication.  Much  evil  may  be  avoided  by  a  meek  and 
passive  non-resistance,  where  not  otherwise  bound  in  conscience. 
"  The  wisdom  from  above  is  first  pure  " ;  and  so  is  unyielding  where 
plain  duty  and  God's  truth  are  in  question  ;  but,  in  all  other 
cases,  it  is  "peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy 
and  good  fruits,  without  partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy." 
Meekness  is  ever  a  valuable  conservitor  of  the  peace.  It  often 
abashes  the  evil  eye,  silences  the  taunting  tongue,  and  refutes  the 
shameful  accusation  ;  while  proud  and  brassy  self-assertion  is 
sure  to  stir  up  resentment  and  trouble. 

Loiig-sxiffering  is  named.  Life  is  full  of  frictions,  hurts  and 
irritations;  and  if  any  one  wishes  to  take  offence,  or  find  room 
for  quarrel,  he  will  be  at  no  loss  for  opportunities.  Human 
nature  is  also  very  quick  to  resent  wrongs,  whether  real  or  suj)- 
posed.  But,  if  peace  and  fraternity  are  to  be  maintained,  there 
must  be  patient  overlooking  of  provocations  and  faults,  suppres- 
sion of  harsh  retaliation,  and  willingness  to  suffer  for  the  time 
rather  than  go  to  war  with  one  another.  As  Christians,  we  are 
supposed  to  have  grace  and  self-control  enough  for  this.  There 
are  instances  in  which  sternness  and  severity  are  in  place,  and 
must  be  exercised ;  but,  in  all  cases,  it  becomes  us  to  entertain 
and  show  Christian  charity,  which  suflfereth  long,  is  kind,  and  is 
not  easily  provoked. 

Forhenrbig  one  another  in  love  is  named.  At  best,  we  are  all 
full  of  imperfections.  In  many  things  we  all  offend.  We  can- 
not help  it.  But  love  is  a  great  healer  of  wounds.  It  covers 
many  sins.  And  as  we  would  Iiave  others  allow  for  our  faults, 
infirmities,  mistakes  and  indiscretions,  and  for  love's  sake  not  hold 
us  to  strict  account ;  we  must  be  heroic  enough  to  forbear  and 
forgive  wherein  they  may  not  be  up  to  what  we  might  think  due 
and  proper.     In  one  of  our  confessional  books  it  is  said:   "In  all 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  27 

families  aud  states  concord  is  nourished  by  mutual  forbearance 
and  kindness,  and  tranquillity  cannot  be  retained  unless  men 
overlook  and  forgive  one  another's  mistakes;  so,  according  to  St. 
Paul,  to  preserve  harmony  in  the  Church,  there  must  be  love  and 
charity,  bearing,  as  need  be,  with  the  rougher  ways  of  brethren, 
and  overlooking  minor  errors,  lest  the  Church  rend  into  factions 
and  schisms,  and  from  these  enmity,  bitterness  and  heresies  arise. 
.  .  .  Public  harmony  cannot  continue  in  the  Church  unless  pastors 
and  people  overlook  and  pass  by  many  things."  Beautiful  words! 
and  true  as  beautiful. 

And  all  this  the  holy  Apostle  very  earnestly  entreats  of  us,  as 
so  befitting  Christians,  that  our  personal  Christianity  is  in  doubt 
if  we  do  not  strive  to  demean  ourselves  after  this  manner.  The 
implication  is,  that  perfect  and  uninterrupted  harmony  is  hard  to 
maintain,  if  at  all  attainable;  that  alienations  will  come;  aud 
that  breaches  of  brotherly  concord  will  occur;  but  the  lequire- 
ment  is,  for  us  to  exert  ourselves  in  honest  endeavor,  that  the  fault 
may  not  be  ours. 

Nor  is  there  a  more  powerful  argument  to  move  and  animate 
us  in  these  efforts,  than  that  which  the  Apostle  here  urges.  If  the 
Holy  Ghost  has  really  begotten  us  unto  God — if  we  really  have 
been  incorporated  into  the  one  indivisible  body  of  the  renewed 
and  sanctified,  and  become  joint  heirs  with  Jesus  to  the  eternal 
inheritance—how  utterly  unworthy  of  the  sublime  honor,  and 
how  glaringly  inconsistent  with  our  oneness  with  all  believers,  to 
refuse  amity  and  good  feeling  toward  others,  who,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge  or  know,  stand  in  the  same  heavenly  relationship  !  Dis- 
daining to  regard  any  of  God's  children  as  our  brethren  here,  how 
can  we  count  ourselves  members  of  His  household,  or  fitted  for 
that  deeper  fellowship  with  them  in  the  great  hereafter! 

Where  the  true  Christ  is  rejected,  His  plain  truth  put  aside, 
and  His  sacred  ordinances  trampled  under  foot,  we  are  under  holy 
bonds  to  refuse  Christian  recognition  and  fraternity.  Pertinacity 
in  heresy  and  schism  dare  not  be  treated  with  indifference.  But 
I  pity  the  people  who  claim  to  be  God's  children,  and  profess  to 
stand  in  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  with  all  believers,  and  yet  will 
not  agree  to  live  in  peace  and  charity  with  those  who  are  quite  as 


28  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

likely  God's  children  as  themselves.  I  can  conceive  of  nothing  more 
unseemly,  or' more  vitiating  to  one's  claim  to  be  of  the  family  of 
the  regenerated  and  saved,  than  a  zeal  so  Pharisaic  and  unsavory. 

Most  solenm,  therefore,  are  these  entreaties  of  the  imprisoned 
apostle,  and  most  binding  upon  all  \Yho  would  be  consistent  Chris- 
tians. And  membership  in  the  community  of  saints,  as  well  as 
the  true  morality  of  the  Gospel,  demands  of  us  honest  and  dili- 
gent endeavor  to  conform  to  them,  that  "  the  bond  of  peace"  may 
not  be  broken. 

To  what  extent  we  ministers  and  members  of  the  Church  have 
been  governed  by  these  apostolic  admonitions  in  the  various  differ- 
ences and  contentions  that  have  existed  among  us,  is  a  question 
that  coir.es  home  to  each  for  earnest  and  devout  heart-searching. 
Professing  and  claiming  to  be  one  in  Christ,  ber:ring  the  same 
family  name,  acknowledging  the  same  Confession,  and  agreeing  in 
so  many  things,  we  may  well  ask  ourselves,  before  God,  Have  we 
really  so  ordered  our  temper,  behavior,  words  and  writings,  as  to 
do  all  we  might  have  done  to  "  Keep  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace?"  Happy  he  who  has  nothing  with  which  to 
reproach  himself  in  this  respect! 

But  the  past  is  past,  and  its  records  cannot  be  altered.  The 
conditions  which  it  has  wrought  are  here,  and  with  these  we  have 
to  do.  We  have  our  several  predilections,  our  separate  j^laces 
and  associations,  and  our  somewhat  variant  judgments  of  what  is 
mo-st  wise  and  politic  in  the  manngement  of  our  common  cause. 
We  belong  to  different  outward  organizations,  with  tlieir  several 
particular  histories,  conditions  and  requirements.  All  this  mny 
be,  and  be  for  the  best,  in  the  outworking  of  the  problems  with 
which  we  have  to  deal.  It  may  not  be  wise  to  encroach  too  nuich 
upon  what  is,  lest  we  spoil  and  damage  more  than  we  conserve. 
But  there  is  nothing  in  this  to  hinder  confraternity  in  the  spirit 
of  the  text.  We  can  come  together  betimes  as  brethren  of  the 
same  general  household,  and  confer  with  each  other  on  matters 
that  concern  the  welfare  of  our  common  Zion,  We  can  grasp 
each  other's  hands,  hear  each  other  speak,  and  compare  together 
each  other's  thoughts  and  views;  and  so  fit  ourselves  the  better  to 
realize  and  appreciate  the  truth.     And  is  it  not  a  matter  of  good 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  29 

omen,  that  this  Convention  has  been  called  by  the  joint  action  of 
the  three  general  bodies  to  which  most  of  us  belong.  And  if  we 
are  careful  to  exemplify  the  entreaties  of  the  Great  Apostle,  to 
which  I  have  referred,  there  surely  is  reason  to  anticipate  from  it 
much  personal  edification,  and  much  valuable  benefit  to  the 
Church.  God  be  merciful  to  us,  and  so  rule  and  guide  us  by  His 
Holy  Spirit,  that  our  intercourse,  sayings  and  doings  may  be  to 
His  praise,  and  tend  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  for  our  too  much 
divided  Church  in  this  land! 

The  day  on  which  we  meet  happens  to  be  St.  John's  Day,  and 
this  church  is  named  St.  John's  Ciiurch.  Here  is  coincidence 
that  may  not  be  without  significance — perhaps  even  prophetic. 
St.  John  was  preeminently  the  apostle  of  love  and  sacred  medi- 
tation. He  leaned  the  closest  on  the  Saviour's  bosom.  He  most 
fully  described  the  dignity  and  sublime  mystery  of  our  Saviour's 
person.  And  if  his  spirit  should  prove  to  be  the  spirit  of  this 
Convention,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  a  lasting  benefaction. 

German  philosophers  have  voiced  a  theory,  that  the  history  of 
the  Church  has  three  characteristic  stages,  answering  to  the  history 
of  the  individual  man :  First,  the  period  of  sensations  and  outward 
growth  and  expansion;  then  the  period  of  self-consciousness,  dis- 
content with  restraining  authority,  and  the  assertion  of  personal 
freedom;  and  then  the  period  of  sober  reflection,  the  balancing 
and  adjustment  of  ideas,  and  the  crowning  of  manhood  in  the 
calm  and  kindliness  of  peaceful  age.  And  so  they  say  the  first 
stage  of  the  Church's  history  was  Peirine — the  period  of  mission- 
ary activity,  of  growth,  and  of  the  external  upbuilding  of  the 
Church,  culminating  in  the  early  centuries,  and  extending  to  the 
time  of  the  Reformation.  Then  came  a  second  stage,  which  they 
call  the  Pauline — the  era  of  mental  awakening,  of  controversy 
within  the  Church,  of  revolt  against  the  bondage  of  legalism,  tra- 
dition and  super-exalted  institutional  dictation,  tending  to  enthrone 
private  judgment,  and  begetting  many  conflicting  divisions  of 
thought  and  organization,  unfortunately  so  plentifully  develoixd 
in  these  later  times.  But  this  they  claim  is  now  about  to  be 
followed  by  an  incoming  third  stage,  which  they  name  the 
Johanine — marked  by  the  softening  and  reconciling  power  of  love 


30  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

and  chiirity,  the  doing  away  with  gnarled  prejudices,  the  harmon- 
izing of  convictions  in  dei-per  and  clearer  apprehensions  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  the  summing  up  of  theology  in  the  Christ, 
and  the  settling  down  of  Christendom  into  the  calm  and  peace  of  a 
better  understanding  of  what  hdongs  to  a  true  and  loving  Chris- 
tianity. O  for  the  realization  of  such  a  time  and  order!  O  that 
this  Convention,  initiated  on  this  St.  John's  day,  in  this  St.  John's 
Church,  may  be  the  precursor  of  such  a  Johanine  age  for  our 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in  America!  Amen.  And  Amen. 
After  the  close  of  the  service,  the  Rev.  Prof.  Henry  E.  Jacobs,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  of  Mt.  Airj',  Philadelphia,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements,  called  the  Conference  to  order  and  formally  opened 
the  Convention  with  the  following  appropriate  address : 

ADDRESS  BY  DR.  JACOBS. 
Fathers  and  Brethren  : 

"We  meet  on  historic  ground.  Within  thirty  miles,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-nine  years  ago,  while  Germany  was  amidst  the 
throes  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  the  fall  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  on  the  field  of  Liitzen  was  a  recent  occurrence,  a 
Lutheran  pastor  was  faithfully  preaching  the  Gospel.  Nine 
miles  from  here  in  Delaware  county  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  Luther's  Catechism  was  translated  into  the  language  of 
the  surrounding  Indians.  AVithin  twenty  minutes,  the  street- 
cars will  take  you  to  the  venerable  Gloria  Dei  church,  nearly 
two  centuries  old,  whose  walls  witnessed  the  first  Lutheran  ordi- 
nation service  in  America.  As  you  tread  its  aisle,  you  may 
pause  to  read  the  inscription  over  the  remains  of  Eudman,  who 
was  instrumental  in  inducting  the  first  German  Lutheran  pastor 
ordained  here  into  tlic  ministry,  and  who  eagerly  responded  to 
every  call  that  came  to  preach  the  Gospel,  whether  in  Swedish, 
English  or  Dutch  ;  and  of  that  man  of  like  spirit,  Dylander,  who 
served  so  faithfully  the  Germans  of  Germantown  and  Lancaster 
as  well  as  the  people  of  his  own  nationality;  and  may  gather  in- 
spiration from  the  example  of  men,  who  not  only  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  our  Church,  but  who  did  so  with  a  catholicity  that 
provided  for  all  professing  the  Lutheran  faith. 

Hither   one   hundred   and   fifty-six    years    ago,    Muhlenberg 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE,  31 

came,  and  near  Fifth  and  Arch  Streets,  barely  two  squares 
hence,  began  his  work  in  this  city.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  \i\st  summer,  in  this  immediate  neighborhood,  the 
Swedish  Provost  with  IMuhlenberg  and  four  other  German  pas- 
tors hiid  the  foundation  of  the  Synodical  organization  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  of  America.  The  Liturgy  then  adopted  is 
almost  completely  identical  with  that  which  the  Joint  Com- 
mittee representing  our  three  Bodies  approved  thirteen  years 
ago,  in  a  well-known  building  on  the  south  side  of  the  square  at 
the  head  of  this  street.  Not  far  was  the  old  church  to  which 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  repeatedly  repaired  for  public 
service,  when  this  city  was  its  capital;  and  the  grave-yard,  where 
in  the  terrible  scourge  of  yellow  fever,  one  hundred  and  five 
years  ago,  Dr.  Helmuth  proved  himself  a  hero.  Ninety-two 
years  ago,  this  congregation  of  St.  John's,  in  whose  church 
we  have  assembled  on  St.  John  the  Apostle's  Day,  was  founded 
to  proclaim  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  in  the  language  of  this 
city  and  country.  Although  it  has  now  only  its  third  pastor 
it  stands  to-day  the  oldest  Lutheran  congregation  in  the  land, 
in  which  the  English  has  been,  from  the  beginning,  the  lan- 
guage of  public  worship.  In  St.  Matthew's  Church,  whose  con- 
gregation is  but  nine  years  younger,  the  First  Free  Lutheran 
Diet  met  twenty-one  years  ago,  bringing  together  in  public  dis- 
cussion, for  the  first  time,  those  who  had  been  separated  since 
the  crisis  thirty-two  years  ago  at  Fort  Wayne. 

A  careful  review  of  the  history  of  our  Church  in  the  East, 
since;the  Diets  of  1877  and  '78  were  held,  would  enable  us  to  trace 
the  great  service  they  rendered  in  moulding  opinion  and  cultiva- 
ting mutual  esteem.  Those  meetings,  however,  were  purely  in- 
dividual matters,  and  lacked  any  formal  endorsement  by  Synod 
or  General  Bodies. 

To-day  we  meet  by  authority  of  the  General  Council,  General 
Synod  and  United  Synod  of  the  South.  The  credit  for  originating 
the  negotiations  belongs  to  the  General  Synod;  that  for  pro- 
posing this  Conference,  to  the  General  Council.  We  are  here 
not  for  the  purpose  of  projecting  any  plans  for  the  ultimate  uni- 
fication of  the  Church.     Our  General  Bodies  have  not  authorized 


32  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

US  to  pass  any  resolutions  or  take  any  action  on  tlie  questions  we 
are  to  consider.  Nor  are  we  here  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing 
the  liistory  of  our  years  of  separation  and  controversy,  and  at- 
tempting in  a  public  discussion  to  justify  or  condemn  the  action 
or  position  of  Synods  or  General  Bodies  at  particular  times. 
There  are  no  advocates  here  either  of  the  infallibility  of  Synods, 
or  of  the  conviction,  that  while  they  are  fallible,  nevertheless, 
they  have  been  preserved  always  from  error.  We  are  no  less 
loyal  to  our  Mother  Synod,  when  we  candidly  criticize  her  past 
history,  and  trace  tendencies  that  are  inconsistent  with  her  con- 
fessional position.  "We  are  not  here  as  partisans,  to  array  one 
Body  against  another,  and  to  seek  to  triumph  in  public  debate. 
Our  purpose  is  not  to  gain  an  advantage  over  some  rival,  to  en- 
deavor to  general-councilize  the  General  Synod,  or  to  general- 
syuodize  the  General  Council ;  or  to  prepare  the  way  for  some 
radical  readjustment  of  existing  church  organizations.  What 
Providence  intends  by  this  Conference,  and  whither  it  may  lead, 
no  one  can  tell ;  but  we  have  simply  followed  as  the  way  seemed 
of  itself  to  open.  The  proposition  was  almost  spontaneously 
suggested,  and  without  argument  has  met  unanimous  approval, 
on  the  floor  of  our  General  Bodies. 

We  are  here  to  treat  of  the  great  principles  we  piofess  to  hold 
in  common,  to  descend  beneath  the  surface  to  the  foundations 
ujjon  which  they  rest,  and  then  again  to  rise  to  a  proper  concep- 
tion of  their  manifold  relations  and  far-reaching  consequences. 
As  the  faith  of  the  Church  is  greater  than  its  organization,  ques- 
tions concerning  the  faith  itself  overshadow  in  importance  all 
that  pertains  to  organization.  It  is  of  more  importance  that  we 
should  be  able  to  confer  concerning  principles,  than  that  we 
should  be  ready  to  confer  concerning  organization  itself  With 
entire  loyalty  to  our  several  Synods,  we  are  here  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  lines  of  church  organization,  important  as  they  are 
for  the  efficient  administration  of  church  work,  are  entirely  inade- 
quate to  limit  the  interest  which,  as  Christians  and  particularly 
as  Lutheran  Christians,  we  take  in  each  other's  life  and  progress. 
There  is  only  one  divinely-instituted  Church,  and  that  is  the  con- 
gregation of  believers  or  "cumraunion  of  saints."     There  is  only 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  33 

one  essential  to  the  true  unity  of  tlie  Church,  and  that  is,  as  the 
Augsburg  Confession  declares,  "not  that  human  traditions  or  rites 
and  ceremonies  be  everywhere  alike,"  i.  e.,  that  all  should  be 
under  tlie  same  government,  and  be  regulated  by  the  same  rules 
of  administration,  but  that  "  they  agree  concerning  the  doctrine 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments."  When 
our  agreement  witliin  these  spheres  is  established,  our  separation 
into  diverse  organizations  may  serve  to  increase  our  efficiency, 
instead  of  retarding  it ;  while  union  in  organization  without  such 
agreement  will  tend  only  to  strife  and  confusion.  We  are  here 
to  speak  with  entire  candor  and  in  the  sj^irit  of  Christian  love 
concerning  the  faith  that  is  dearer  to  us  than  life  itself;  to 
patiently  answer  all  questions  and  to  remove  misapprehensions. 

But  as  faith  has  manifold  modes  of  expression,  it  would  be 
wrong  to  limit  our  view  to  but  one  side.  As  we  cannot  properly 
treat  of  any  article  of  faith  without  considering  its  relation  to  the 
entire  system,  so,  to  be  just,  we  must  examine  the  confessional 
principle  as  it  emerges  into  expression  in  the  practical  work  of 
the  Church.  We  are  here  to  help  one  another  in  ascertaining 
the  peculiar  work  that  Providence  has  appointed  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  this  Western  world  ;  to  realize  our  opportunities ;  and 
to  soberly  estimate  our  discouragements  and  difficulties.  We  are 
here  not  only  to  provoke  one  another  to  love  and  good  works,  as 
we  proceed  on  our  way  on  })arallel  lines,  but,  so  far  as  we  can,  to 
affiard  each  other  all  aid  in  bearing  burdens  and  repelling  oppo- 
nents and  removing  obstacles,  and  advancing  our  Master's  King- 
dom. We  are  all  benefited  by  that  which  promotes  the  true 
interests  of  any  of  our  General  Bodies  ;  we  are  all  injured  by  that 
which  retards  or  dishonors  any.  In  a  word,  we  are  here  to  learn  to 
know  each  other  better — to  grow  more  deeply  into  the  faith  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  we  all  profess  to  be  the  standard  of  our 
teaching,  and  into  the  love  of  Christ  which  is  the  source  of  all 
hopes  for  this  world  and  the  next. 

We  are  here  not  as  officially  approved  representatives  of  our  sev- 
eral bodies,  but  as  individuals,  who,  apart  from  all  relations  to  these 
Bodies,  may  speak,  each  one  according  to  the  faith  that  is  in  him. 

We  may  be  only  at  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  Conferences 
3 


34       PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

like  these.  All  important  movements  and  institutions  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God  mature  slowly.  Three  days  are  entirely  inade- 
quate for  satisfactory  discussions.  They  can  only  prepare  the 
way  for  wlmt  Providence  has  yet  in  store.  The  committee,  in 
the  program  it  submits,  has  attempted  only  to  make  a  beginning. 
If  it  be  uusatisfoctory,  there  may  be  ample  opportunity  hereafter 
to  embody  all  improvements  in  provision  for  future  Conferences. 

Much  has  been  attained  already  in  the  cause  which  this  Con- 
ference represents.  For  twenty  years,  General  Synod,  General 
Council  and  United  Synod  on  the  Suuth  have  been  co-operating 
successfully  in  the  work  of  liturgical  reform.  More  recently  an 
agreement  to  prevent  collisions  and  friction  in  the  establishment 
of  missions  has  been  officially  approved  by  all  these  Bodies, — 
which  if  consistently  maintained  and  administered  through  its 
Joint  Board  of  Arbitration,  will  practically  unite  the  several 
Bodies  into  one  Confederation  of  Churches.  For  some  years,  our 
representatives  in  the  great  work  of  deaconesses  have  found  an 
association  for  mutual  encouragement  profitable.  Between  our 
General  Bodies  there  is  an  interchange  of  official  visitors.  All 
these  relations  the  General  Council  has  officially  explained  as 
follows:  "The  General  Synod  recognized  the  General  Council  as 
a  Lutheran  body  by  its  invitation  for  co-operation.  The  General 
Council,  in  accepting  the  invitation  and  binding  its  representa- 
tives to  the  Fundamental  Principles  of  Faith  and  Church  Polity, 
regarded  the  General  Synod's  basis,  properly  interpreted,  as  not 
inconsistent  with  these  principles,  but  held  that  the  principles 
of  the  Council  are  necessary  for  the  proper  guardianship  and 
defence  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  which  the  General  Synod's 
basis  professes  to  maintain." 

We  have  come  together,  then,  in  the  fear  of  God  to  meet  the 
issues  that  our  calling  demands;  and  to  learn,  by  a  comparison 
of  judgments,  where  we  are  and  whither  Providence  directs  us. 

May  He  who  has  brought  us  together  go  before  us  with  His 
most  gracious  favor,  and  follow  us  with  liis  continual  help,  that 
all  our  deliberations  and  discussions,  begun,  continued  and  ended 
in  Him,  may  glorify  His  holy  Name,  and  advance  His  kingdom. 
Amen. 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   CONFERENCE. 


FIEST  SESSION. 

St.  John's  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  "I 

Tuesday,  December  27,  1898,  2  p.m.    J 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Jacobs  called  the  Convention  to  order  and  pre- 
sided. The  session  was  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  H.  F. 
Scheele,  of  St.  Joseph,  Mo.  According  to  previous  appoint- 
ment, the  Rev.  Drs.  Wm.  S.  Freas,  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  S.  E. 
Ochsenford,  of  Selin's  Grove,  Pa.,  acted  as  secretaries.  The 
rules  governing  the  Convention  were  read  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Freas. 

The  first  subject  considered  was  entitled :  "  Our  Common  His- 
torical Antecedents."  The  first  essay  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Prof. 
E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  of  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  and  the  second  by  the 
Rev.  Prof  John  Nicum,  DD.,  President  of  Wagner  College, 
Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Remarks  were  made  by  Revs.  J.  A.  W.  Haas,  of  New  York 
City;  E.  T.  Horn,  D.D.,  of  Reading,  Pa.;  D.  Earhart,  of  Phila- 
delphia; Prof  A.  Spaeth,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  Mt.  Airy;  and  Drs. 
Wolf  and  Nicum. 

The  second  subject  considered  was  that  of  "  Prayer  :  Its  Doc- 
trine and  Forms."  The  essayist  was  the  Rev.  Edward  T.  Horn, 
D.D.,  of  Reading,  Pa. 

Remarks  were  made  by  Revs.  J.  Nicum,  D.D.,  of  Rochester, 
N.  Y.;  Prof  D.  H.  Bauslin,  D.D.,  of  Springfiehl,  O.;  Prof.  E. 
J.  Wolf,  D  D.,  of  Gettysburg,  Pa. ;  G.  F.  Krotel,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
of  East  Orange,  N.  J.;  L.  E.  Albert,  D.D.,  of  Germantown,  Pa. ; 

35 


36  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Prof.  Dr.  A.  Spaeth,  of  Mt.  Airy;  Prof.  J.  Fry,  D.D ,  of  Mt. 
Airy;  AV.  H.  Staake,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia;  Dr.  G.  G.  Burnett, 
of  San  Francisco,  Cal. ;  and  Rev.  Dr.  Horn. 

The  Conference  adjourned  w  ith  prayer  by  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Hay, 
D.D.,  of  Harrisburg,  Pa. 

SECOND  SESSION. 

St.  Johx'.s  CnuKCH,  \ 

Tuesday,  December  27, 1898,  8  p.ji.    J 

The  Rev.  H.  F.  Scheele  presided.  The  session  opened  with 
the  Vesper  Service,  conducted  by  the  Rev.  E.  E.  Sibole,  D.D., 
pastor  of  St.  John's  Church. 

The  topic  for  the  evening  session  was  "  Our  Educational  Insti- 
tutions." The  first  essay  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Prof  F.  V.  N. 
Painter,  D.D.,  of  Roanoke  College,  Salem,  Va.;  and  the  second 
by  the  Rev.  Prof.  S.  A.  Ort,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Witten- 
berg College  and  Seminary,  Springfield,  O. 

Remarks  Avere  made  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jos.  A.  Seiss,  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

The  session  was  closed  with  the  Vesper  Service,  conducted  by 
the  pastor  of  the  church. 

THIRD  SESSION. 

St.  Matthew's  CnuRCU,  Philadelphia,  \ 

Wednesday,  December  28,  1898,  9  a.m.   / 

The  Rev.  S  W.  Owen,  D.D.,  presided.  The  session  was 
opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Prof  J.  Fry,  D.D  ,  of  ]\It.  Airy, 
Philadelphia. 

The  first  subject  considered  was  that  of  "The  Scope  and 
Limitation  of  Church  Authority."  Tiie  first  essay  was  read  by 
the  Rev.  Prof  D.  H.  Bauslin,  D.D.,  of  Wittenberg  Seminary, 
Springfield,  O.,  and  the  second  by  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Krotel,  D.D., 
LLD.,  of  East  Orange,  N.  J. 

Remarks  were  made  by  Revs.  J.  A.  W.  Haas,  of  New  York ; 
Chas.  S.  Albert,  D.D.,  of  Philadelphia;  J.  C.  Kunzman,  of 
Pittsburg,  Pa. ;  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  of  Gettysburg,  Pa. ;  and  Drs. 
Bauslin  and  Krotel  concluded  the  reading  of  their  papers. 

The  second  subject  on  the  program  was  entitled  :  "  The  Sacra- 


ST.  MATTHEW'S  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  CHURCH, 

X.  W.  Cor.  Broad  aud  Mount  Vernon  Sts.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Rev.  W.  M.  HAUM,  I). I)..  Pastor. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE,  37 

mental  Idea  in  Lutheran  Theology  and  Worship."  The  first 
paper  on  this  subject  \vas  presented  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  Spaeth, 
D.D.,  LL  D  ,  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Mt.  Airy,  Phila- 
delphia ;  and  the  second  by  the  Rev.  J.  C.  KoUer,  D.D.,  of  Han- 
over, Pa. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Revs.  Dr.  Jacobs,  of  Mt.  Airy ;  J. 
R.  Groff,  of  Doylestown,  Pa.;  and  Dr.  Spaeth. 

The  third  subject  considered  at  this  session  was  entitled : 
"  Problems  in  Foreign  Mission  Work,"  and  was  presented  by  the 
Rev.  Geo.  Scholl,  D.D.,  of  Baltimore,  Md. 

The  Conference  adjourned  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Wm.  M. 
Baum,  Jr.,  of  Cauajoharie,  N.  Y. 

FOURTH  SESSION. 


Chapel  of  Mary  J.  Drexel  Home, 

Wednesday,  December  28, 1898,  2  p.: 


The  Rev.  Dr.  S.  W.  Owen  presided.  The  session  was  opened 
with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Geo.  C.  F.  Haas,  of  New  York  City. 

The  first  subject  presented  was  that  of  "  Common  Sunday- 
School  Literature,"  by  the  Rev.  L.  L.  Smith,  of  Strasburg,  Va. 

The  second  paper  prepared  by  the  Rev.  L.  A.  Fox,  D.D.,  of 
Salem,  Va.,  on  the  subject, — "  The  Common  Book,"  was  read,  in 
the  absence  of  the  author,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Painter. 

Remarks  were  made  by  Drs.  Jacobs  and  Seiss. 

The  third  essay,  on  the  subject  of  "  Lutheranism  and  Spirit- 
uality," was  read  by  the  Rev.  E.  K.  Bell,  D.D.,  editor  of  The 
Lutheran  World,  of  Mansfield,  0. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Groff,  of  Doylestown, 
Pa. 

The  fourth  subject  treated  was  that  of  "  Deaconess  Work." 
The  first  essayist  was  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Dunbar,  D.D.,  of  Balti- 
more, Md.,  and  the  second  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr.,  of 
Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Revs.  Dr.  A.  Spaeth,  of  Mt.  Airy; 
F.  P.  Manhart,  of  Baltimore;  Dr.  W.  H.  Dunbar,  of  Balti- 
more; Dr.  V.  L.  Conrad,  of  Philadelphia;  W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr., 
of  Pittsburg ;  and  F.  A.  Kaehler,  of  Buflllilo,  N.  Y. 


38  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

The  Conference  adjourned  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  A.  S.  Hart- 
mau,  D.D.,  of  Baltimore,  Md. 

FIFTH  SESSION. 

St.  Matthew's  Church,  \ 

Thursday,  December  29, 1898,  9  a  M.  J 

The  Rev.  H.  F.  Scheele  presided.  The  session  was  opened 
■with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Luther  Kuhlman,  D.D.,  of  Frederick,  Md. 

The  first  subject  considered  was  "The  Lutheran  Estimate  of 
Ordination."  The  first  essay  was  read  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  W. 
Haas,  of  New  York,  in  place  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Weidner,  of  Chicago, 
who  was  prevented  from  being  present.  The  second  paper,  on 
the  same  subject,  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Prof  J.  R.  Dimm,  D.D  , 
President  of  Susquehanna  University,  Selin's  Grove,  Pa. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Revs.  Dr.  E.  J.  Wolf,  of  Gettys- 
burg; Dr.  J.  A.  Seiss,  of  Philadelphia;  Dr.  G.  W.  Enders,  of 
York,  Pa.;  Dr.  A.  Spaeth,  of  Mt.  Airy;  Dr.  E.  T.  Horn,  of 
Reading,  Pa. ;  and  concluding  remarks  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Haas 
and  Dr.  Dimm. 

The  second  subject  treated  was  that  of  "The  Standards  of 
Ministerial  Education."  The  first  essay  was  read  by  the  Rev. 
W.  E.  Parson,  D.D.,  of  "Washington,  D.  C,  and  the  second  by 
the  Rev.  F.  A.  Kaehler,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Revs.  Dr.  J.  R,  Dimm,  of  Selin's 
Grove;  Dr.  J.  Fry,  of  Mt.  Airy;  Dr.  Geo  Scholl,  of  Baltimore; 
W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr.,  of  Pittsburg;  Dr.  F.  J.  F.  Schantz,  of 
Myerstown;  Dr.  Chas.  S.  Albert,  of  Philadelphia;  Dr.  G.  F. 
Krotel,  of  East  Orange,  N.  J. ;  and  by  Dr.  Parson  and  Rev.  Mr. 
Kaehler. 

Conference  adjourned  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Enders, 
D.D.,  of  York,  Pa. 

SIXTH  SESSION. 

St.  Matthew's  Church,  "t 

Thursday,  December  29, 1898,  2  p.m.   J 

The  Rev.  H.  F.  Scheele  presided.  The  session  was  opened  with 
prayer  by  the  Rev.  Prof  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  D.D.,  of  Salem,  Va. 

The  first  subject  considered  was  that  of  "The  Lutheran  Church 
and  Modern  Religious  Issues."     The  first  essay,  prepared  by  the 


> 


w 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  39 

Rev.  A.  G.  Voigt,  D.D.,  of  Wilmington,  N.  C,  was  read  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Horn,  and  viewed  the  subject  from  the  German  stand- 
point. The  second  essay,  viewing  tlie  sulyect  from  the  American 
standpoint,  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Theodore  E.  Schmauk,  D.D., 
of  Lebanon,  Pa. 

The  second  subject  discussed  was  "The  Problem  of  Co-opera- 
tion," and  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  M.  W.  Hamnui,  D.D  ,  of 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Remarks  were  made  by  the  Revs.  Dr.  L.  E.  Albert,  of  Ger- 
mantown,  Pa.;  Dr.  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  of  Salem,  Va.;  Dr.  G.  F. 
Krotel,  of  East  Orange,  N.  J. ;  and  Dr.  S.  W.  Owen,  of  Hagers- 
towu,  Md. 

The  third  subject,  which  was  to  have  been  considered  during 
the  fiist  session,  to  wit,  "The  Child  Catechumenate,"  wns  pre- 
sented by  the  Rev.  G.  U.  Wenner,  D.D.,  of  New  York  City. 

CONFERENCE  BUSINESS. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  Program,  as  above  presented, 
Conference  passed  the  following  resolutions  : 

On  motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Krotel,  it  was 

Be.wlved,  That  we,  as  a  Convention,  make  known  to  the  three 
General  Bodies,  by  whose  authority  this  Convention  was  called,  the 
desirability  of  holding  another  Convention  of  a  similar  character  in 
the  future. 

On  motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chas.  S.  Albert,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  a  vote  of  thanks  be  tendered  to  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements  for  their  work  and  the  excellent  Program  prepared  for 
this  Convention. 

On  motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jacobs,  it  was 

Besolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Conference  be  tendered  to  the 
pastor  and  Congregation  of  St.  John's  Church,  the  pastor  and  congre- 
gation of  St.  Matthew's,  and  the  authorities  of  the  Mary  J.  Drexel 
Home,  for  the  use  of  their  buildings  during  the  Convention. 

On  motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Owen,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Convention  be  tendered  to  the 
reporters  for  their  excellent  reports  of  the  proceedings. 


40  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Resolved,  That  a  vote  of  thanks  be  tendered  to  the  Lutheran  Social 
Union  for  the  invitation  to  the  reception  to  be  tendered  this  (Thurs- 
day) evening  by  the  said  Union  to  the  members  of  the  Conference. 

On  motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Krotel,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  tlie  thanks  of  this  Convention  be  tendered  to  all 
those  who  have  contributed  funds  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses  of 
this  Convention. 

The  Conference  adjourned  with  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Krotel. 


RECEPTION   BY   THE   SOCIAL   UNION. 

A  reception  was  tendered  on  Thursday  evening,  December  29, 
1898,  by  the  Lutheran  Social  Union,  at  the  Freeman  Building, 
S.  W.  corner  of  12th  and  Walnut  streets,  to  the  members  of  the 
General  Conference  of  Lutherans.  More  than  two  hundred 
clergymen  and  laymen  were  pref^ent. 

Mr.  William  J.  Miller,  president,  was  in  the  chair,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Owen,  offered  prayer. 

The  following  addresses  were  delivered: 

Address  of  welcome  by  President  IMiller,  in  which  he  explained 
the  object  of  the  organization,  referred  to  the  influence  of  the 
General  Conference  on  the  Church,  and  welcomed  the  guests. 
Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  Painter  on  "  Right  Empliasis." 
Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  Bauslin  on  "A  Lutheran  Galaxy." 
Address  by  Rev.  Kaehler  on  "  True  Progress  has  its  Strength 
in  Conservatism." 

Address  by  Rev.  Passavant  on  "  Laymen  and  Lay-women." 
Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  Bell  on  "Aggressive  Lutheranism." 
During  the  evening  music  was  furnished  by  Messrs.  Geo.  Ford 
and  Frank  van  Roden.     After  the  music  and  addresses,  refresh- 
ments were  served.     The  reception   was  enjoyed  by  all  those 
present.  Wm.  S.  Freas, 

S.  E.  OCHSENFORD, 

Secretaries. 


ESSAYS  AND   REMARKS. 


.OUE  COMMON  HISTORICAL  ANTECEDENTS. 

BY  PEOF.  E.  J.  AA'OLF,  D.D. 

Gathered  here  as  children  of  a  common  household,  it  behooves 
us  to  remember  that  ■we  are  not  ecclesiastical  foundlings.  We 
share  an  undisputed  and  hoDorable  parentage.  Ours  are  the 
fathers,  yea,  we  have  one  common  father,  even  Muhlenberg,  a 
most  eminent  and  worthy  patriarch,  from  whom  we  all  in  a 
direct  line  trace  our  lineage.  He  is  the  progenitor  of  the  whole 
aggregate  of  Luthernnism  represented  here,  except  the  Swedish 
portion  of  the  General  Council. 

From  this  common  fatherhood  there  descended  to  us  a  com- 
mon heritage  in  the  organization  which  received  its  initiative  and 
permanence  from  ]\[uhlenberg;  in  the  devotion  to  "our  evangeli- 
cal doctrine,  founded  on  the  Apostles  and  set  forth  in  our  Sym- 
bolical Books,"  which  ho  so  em})hatically  protested ;  in  his  fixed 
purpose  that  "  all  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  congregations  might 
be  united  with  one  another;"  and  in  his  intense  concern  for  the 
spiritual  quickening  of  the  congregation  and  the  individual. 
Precious  as  was  this  legacy  in  which  we  all  shared  alike,  neither 
of  us  has  always  fully  estimated  or  properly  guarded  it.  Our 
respective  Synods  have  each  in  turn  neglected  their  priceless 
heritage.  They  have  all  together  deviated  further  from  Muhlen- 
berg than  they  ever  deviated  from  each  other.  God  forgive  us 
that  we  have  been  degenerate  sons  of  noble  sires!  Our  unfaith- 
fulness to  the  exalted  ideals  of  the  fathers  brought  untold  suffer- 
ing and  unmeasured  loss  to  our  dear  old  Church.  We  do  all 
now  heartily  repent  of  these  our  common  derelictions,  and  join  in 
the  one  desire  and  prayer  that  the  whole  Church  may  again 
realize  its  vital  union  with  the  original  trunk  in  this  country,  that 
we  may  all  return  to  the  historic  rock  whence  we  are  hewn  and 
to  the  pit  whence  we  are  digged. 

Muhlenberg  and  his  co-laborers  gave  to  Lutheranism  in  this 
country  organic  form,  and  the  organism  they  created  remains  in 

41 


42  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

its  development  to  this  day,  and  embraces  these  three  bodies,  and, 
we  may  add,  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio.  Whatever  subdivisions 
or  nuiltijdications  of  organization  liavc  occurred  in  the  lapse  of  a 
century,  no  branch  represented  here  will  admit  its  excision  from 
the  historic  trunk.  The  first  ofishoot  in  the  State  of  New  York 
was  designed  simply  to  facilitate  the  common  work.  Not  only 
did  this  first  child  adopt  virtually  the  same  constitution,  but  a 
minister  could  belong  to  both  Miuistcriums  at  the  same  time.  The 
offshoot  in  North  Carolina  was  of  like  character,  for  the  Rev. 
Paul  Henkel  was  a  true  son  of  the  IMothcr  Synod,  as  were  the 
young  pioneers  who  founded  the  Ohio  Synod,  though  their  action 
was  not  approved  by  the  parent  body.  The  Synod  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  was  not  formed  in  order  to  detach  the  churches 
in  those  States  from  the  Ministeriun}  of  Pennsylvania,  but  only 
to  extend  organized  and  efficient  activity  into  those  regions.  It 
was  a  coalition  of  the  Virginia  Conference  of  the  Synod  of  Penn- 
sylvania with  the  congregations  and  ministers  in  Maryland, 
the  mother  and  the  daughter  annually  exchanging  delegates  until 
a  very  few  years  ago. 

Separate  organizations  were  eflTected  in  consideration  of  remote 
geographical  isolation,  and  looking  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
Church,  but  with  no  idea  of  a  total  or  permanent  severance  from 
the  parent  stock  or  from  each  other.  Mother  and  children 
remained  one  communion,  united  by  bonds  of  mutual  sympathy 
and  representation. 

To  guard  ag«inst  drifting  apart,  to  forestall  the  division  and 
alienation  which  was  threatened  by  the  Church's  extension,  the 
Mother  Synod  projected  a  new  organic  relation  for  the  different 
portions  in  the  formation  of  a  General  Synod,  a.d.  1820,  fol- 
lowing in  this  a  very  general  desire  for  some  central  bond 
between  the  Synods  which  should  preserve  their  harmony,  pro- 
mote general  conformity  in  church  usages  and  uniformity  in 
worship,  and  impart  increased  eflliciency  to  all  activities  and 
movements  in  which  ccucentraticn  is  indispensable  to  success. 
Wlien  the  IMother  Synod,  still  numerically  larger  than  all  the 
others,  initiated  this  project  "  with  extraordinary  unanimity  and 
the  most  hearty  concord,"  it  commanded  a  cordial  response  from 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  43 

the  youngei'  bodies — in  fact  tbe  harmony,  the  homogeneity,  the 
mutual  afiinity,  which  obtained  betAvecn  them  made  such  a  union 
as  natural  as  the  coalescence  of  adjacent  drops  of  water. 

There  are  of  course  always  objectors.  The  voice  of  calumny  is 
sure  to  attack  a  holy  cause.  The  fatuous  indolence  of  human  nature 
breeds  indifierence,  and  invincible  ignoiauce  makes  a  formidable 
barrier  to  advancing  Christianity,  but  for  years  the  only  o])posi- 
tiou  to  the  General  Synod  on  principle  came  from  the  Heukels> 
and  their  antagonism  was  not  unmixed  with  unworthy  personal 
motives.  The  Ohio  Synod  was  indeed  at  first  deterred  by  an 
anonymous  document  which  held  up  the  bugaboos  of  a  uniform 
Hymn  Book  and  Liturgy,  of  a  hierarchy,  of  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity enforced  by  the  law%  of  the  encroachments  of  the  English,  but 
the  attractions  of  a  fraternal  union  overcame  even  these  terrors, 
and  had  not  the  Pennsylvania  Ministerium  felt  itself  compelled 
"to  desert  the  child  it  had  brought  into  being," — by  a  calumni- 
ous publication  which  difi'used  similar  prejudices  far  and  wide 
among  the  ignorant  and  narrow-minded  within  its  fold,  exciting 
serious  alarm  by  the  spectre  of  European  Church  despotism,  the 
dangers  and  costs  of  theological  seminaries,  and  the  burden  of 
"  collections  upon  collections  "  which  the  poor  farmers  will  have 
to  pay — a  current  of  prejudice  and  ignorance  which  the  rural 
pastors  made  little  eflfbrt  to  stem — there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
entire  Church  was  sufficiently  of  one  mind  and  heart  to  rally 
under  this  new  banner  set  up  by  the  mother  Synod — the  symbol 
of  a  united  communion — the  large,  imposing,  symmetrical  tree, 
grown  from  the  mustard  seed  planted  by  IMuhlenberg. 

Thus  eighty  years  ago,  although  they  had  gotten  farther  and 
farther  apart  by  geographical  distances  and  want  of  communica- 
tion, our  churches  knew  of  no  friction  or  controversy  on  any  sub- 
ject pertaining  to  faith  and  worship ;  and  to  prevent  the  aliena- 
tions and  divisions  which  remote  isolation  and  the  varying 
development  of  new  organizations  might  engender,  they  resolved 
upon  forging  a  new  bond  of  fraternal  fellowship  and  union.  No 
historian  will  challenge  the  statement  that  the  founders  of  the 
General  Synod  had  no  other  object  than  the  closer  union  and  the 
enlarged  prosperity  of  the  entire  Church.      It  was  meant  to  em- 


44  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

brace  the  whole  Lutheran  household,  to  be  "a  joint  Committee  of 
the  Special  Synods,"  at  a  time  when  neither  telescope  nor  micro- 
scope could  liave  discovered  any  distinction  among  them. 

And  now  when  unhappy  commotions  excited  solely  by  selfish 
and  sordid  considerations,  constrained  the  author  of  the  General 
Synod  to  recede  for  the  time  from  official  relations  with  it,  this 
coin])ulsory  step  implied  no  change  of  heart,  no  discovery  of 
divergent  or  conflicting  elements,  no  abatement  of  fraternal  sym- 
pathy. The  sundering  of  the  outward  bond  did  not  sever  inward 
ties.  The  majority  simply  and  with  ^reat  regret  yielded  against 
their  convictions  to  the  clamor  of  a  minority.  They  were  not 
dissatisfied  with  the  object  or  character  of  the  new  organization, 
and  their  withdrawal  was  meant  to  continue  only  until  the  malcon- 
tents should  see  their  own  error  and  call  for  a  reconsideration  of 
the  unreasonable  action  they  had  precipitated. 

The  leaders  of  the  mother  Synod  continued,  therefore,  to 
cherish  the  friendliest  feelings  toward  the  General  Synod,  view- 
ing it  "  as  highly  beneficial  to  the  interests  of  the  Church,"  and 
they  strongly  deplored  "the  peculiar  circumstances"  which 
enforced  their  separation,  circumstances  which  the  General 
Synod  recognized  "  as  excusing  if  not  absolutely  necessitating  the 
attitude  of  the  old  Synod  in  its  temporary  recession." 

With  undiminished  interest  and  affection  the  mother  watched 
her  children  in  their  new  relationship,  nor  were  they  in  any 
measure  estranged  from  her.  Official  expressions  of  the  most  cor- 
dial good  feeling  and  confidence  were  frequently  exchanged,  and 
the  lioi)e  was  ever  indulged  and  often  voiced  that  the  enforced 
separation  might  soon  be  ended.  The  general  body  henceforth 
led  in  promoting  the  common  interests  of  Zion,  it  sounded  the 
keynote  for  action,  but  the  old  Synod  took  a  warm  and  active 
interest  in  every  movement,  cordially  and  nobly  co-operating.  The 
General  Synod,  on  her  i)art,  heartily  reciprocated  this,  examining 
its  minutes,  noting  important  Synodical  action,  publishing  its  sta- 
tistics and  commending  its  activity  and  liberality.  Dr.  Schmucker, 
in  his  "Retrospect"  (1841),  rejoicing  in  its  prosperity,  testifies 
strongly  to  its  continued  "substantial  and  increasing  aid  to  every 
good  work  undertaken  by  this  Synod,  so  that  much  of  the  credit 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.       45 

-^'liich  1ms  been  achieved,  is  justly  due  to  their  co-operation." 
Thus  in  spirit  and  in  character  there  \\as  still  in  the  thirties  and 
forties  but  one  Lutheran  Church,  of  which  we  are  the  common 
descendants. 

The  General  Synod  frequently  assured  the  brethren  of  the 
Ministerium  of  its  reciprocating  "the  ardent  attachment  of  many 
in  it,"  and  placed  on  record  its  desire  for  the  return  of  that  body 
to  "tliat  union  which  they  had  been  the  principal  instrument  in 
establishing,"  its  longing  for  the  day  when  it  could  "see  them 
unite  their  counsels  and  energies  with  ours."  And  in  turn  the 
Ministerium  kept  agitating  the  matter  of  reunion,  especially  in 
'39  and  '40,  but  the  old  prejudice  against  English  and  other 
marks  of  progress  still  prevailed. 

It  was  in  fact  only  a  portion  of  the  Ministerium  that  had  with- 
drawn—the portion  east  of  the  Susquehanna.  "  The  peculiar 
circumstances "  which  compelled  the  separation  did  not  exist 
west  of  the  river,  hence  the  churches  and  pastors  of  that  section 
seceded  from  the  parent  body  with  its  full  consent  and  blessing,  in 
order  that  they  might  retain  their  connection  Avith  the  General 
Synod. 

As  an  example  of  the  Ministerium's  fraternal  cooperation  with 
the  General  Synod,  we  may  instance  the  theological  seminary 
founded  by  the  latter  body.  When  final  measures  for  its  estab- 
lishment had  been  taken  at  Frederick  in  1825,  and  S.  S. 
Schmucker  had  been  elected  professor,  the  solicitation  of  funds 
was  next  in  order,  and  the  first  committee  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose consisted  of  T)rs.  Lochman,  Eiidress  and  Muhlenberg,  and 
Rev.  Demme  for  the  Synod  of  East  Pennsylvania.  And  the 
extent  of  their  interest  is  evidenced  by  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Schmucker,  who,  after  canvassing  Philadelphia  for  funds,  re- 
jwrted  that  he  found  the  members  of  the  Lutheran  churches 
there  "  a  liberal,  Avealthy  and  generous  people."  Although  they 
were  excluded  from  the  government  of  the  institution — not  being 
connected  with  the  General  Synod— the  churches  east  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna gave  to  it  their  generous  support  and  their  constant 
patronage,  a  large  proportion  of  their  ministerial  candidates 
being  educated  there. 


46  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

From  the  ranks  of  the  INIother  Synod  came  in  1833  the  second 
professor  of  the  Institution  in  the  person  of  C.  P.  Krauth,  who 
also  forthwith  became  the  first  president  of  the  newly-founded 
College  at  Gettysburg,  which  school  numbered  in  its  first  Board 
three  eminent  ministers  of  the  Pennsylvania  Ministerium.  This  co- 
operation grew  with  the  growth  of  both  these  institutions,  and  when 
Franklin  College  was  dissolved  in  1850,  its  Lutheran  Trustees 
who  represented  the  INIinisterium  were,  with  the  funds  of  the 
Franklin  Professorship,  transferred  to  Pennsylvania  College,  giv- 
ing the  Mother  Synod  a  large  membership  in  that  corporation. 
And  so  mutually  satisfactory  was  this  relation  that  the  College 
requested  the  Ministerium  to  provide  the  funds  and  to  name  the 
incumbent  for  a  German  j)rofessorship,  a  request  with  which  the 
Synod  heartily  and  promptly  complied.  Thus  from  the  year 
1855  the  Ministerium  had  two  professors  in  that  College,  one  of 
whom  served  at  the  same  time  as  the  third  member  of  the  Faculty 
of  the  Seminary. 

As  in  education  so  in  the  work  of  Foreign  Missions  there  was 
the  fullest,  friendliest  working  in  harmony.  While  the  Minis- 
terium had,  in  1836,  formed  itself  into  "a  Missionary  Society  for 
propagating  the  Gospel  at  home  and  ultimately  to  cooperate  in 
sending  it  to  the  heathen  world,"  there  was  organized  a  year  later, 
immediately  after  the  General  Synod's  Convention  at  Hagers- 
town,  a  general  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  forty-four  delegates 
being  present,  besides  those  who  were  members  of  the  Synod.  A 
fair  proportion  of  these  forty-four  came  from  the  Ministerium. 
The  first  selection  for  the  foreign  field  was  C.  F.  Ileycr,  a  student 
of  Helmuth,  and  a  man  who  had  been  closely  identified  with  the 
General  Synod.  His  j)rimary  appointment  came  from  the  Gen- 
eral Society,  but  declining  to  go  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Board,  he  ofiered  himself  to  the  Ministerium,  which 
readily  accepted  his  services  and  sent  him  to  India,  where  he  was 
soon  reinforced  by  Walter  Gunn,  sent  out  by  the  General 
Society  in  1843,  and  cordially  welcomed  as  a  fellow-worker  by 
Heyer.  The  two  societies  adopted  a  jilan  of  union  in  1845,  each 
remaining  distinct,  appointing  and  maintaining  its  own  mission- 
aries, but  occupying  the  same  district,  "  having  but  one  interest 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  47 

aud  one  aim  in  the  foreign  field,  the  joint  Mission  to  be  known 
as  the  American  Lutheran  Mission." 

In  Home  jMi?siou  work  there  was  not  tlie  same  cooperation, 
it  being  long  the  practice  of  District  Synods  to  manage  Home 
Mission  interests  themselves.  The  policy  of  centralization  was 
generally  unpopular.  For  five  years  after  the  organization  of  the 
Home  Missionary  Society  in  1845,  only  four  out  of  the  thirteen 
Synods  within  the  General  Synod  contributed  to  it,  and  up  to 
1864  never  one-half  of  them. 

When  the  Puljlication  Society  was  founded,  the  Ministerium  had 
resumed  its  place  in  the  general  body,  still  the  Society  being  a  dis- 
tinct organization  special  mention  is  made  by  the  Society's  histor- 
ian and  president,  of  the  fact  that  many  of  that  Synod's  most  prom- 
inent members  were  in  hearty  sympathy  and  cooperation  with  the 
movement.  "  Especially  active  and  helpful  were  Rev.  Benjamin 
Keller,  our  first  and  most  successful  financial  agent,  Drs.  J.  C. 
Baker,  Charles  W.  Schaefl^er,  William  J.  Mann,  C.  A.  Hay  and 
others."     This  was  in  1855. 

Thus  the  most  amicable  relations  w'ere  maintained,  the  Church 
in  all  those  portions  represented  here  being  essentially  one 
Church — our  Church.  No  open  quarrel  or  direct  antagonism,  no 
clash  occurred  in  those  days,  excepting  the  breach  which  took 
place  A.  D.  1841  in  the  formation  of  the  East  Pennsylvania 
Synod,  wdiich  proposed  to  occupy  the  same  territory  with  the 
Old  Synod.  But  no  amount  of  divine  grace,  Christian  charity,  or 
human  wisdom  could  prevent  collisions  where  two  bodies  of  the 
same  character  attempt  a  joint  occupation  of  the  same  field. 

So  far  from  friction  or  antagonism  being  developed  by  the  co- 
operation which  we  have  sketched,  it  worked  so  well  and  proved 
so  advantageous  that  it  culminated  in  the  organic  reunion  A.  D., 
1853,  of  the  Ministerium  with  the  General  Synod,  now  embracing 
sixteen  components,  her  return  being  greeted  with  a  generous 
welcome  and  widespread  jubilation. 

Other  Synods  continued  to  be  formed  and  to  seek  admission  to 
the  General  Synod  until  it  reached  its  maximum  representative 
strength  in  1860,  when  it  embraced  twenty -six  Synods,  spread 
over  almost  the  entire  country  east  of  the  Rockies ;  all  the  Synods 


48  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

which  comprised  to  any  extent  the  native  Lutheran  population ; 
all  the  bodies  sprung  from  Muhlenberg's  work,  excepting  the 
Joint  Oliio  and  Tennessee  Synods,  numbering  two-thirds  of  the 
entire  Lutheran  membership — all  now  one  organic  body,  as 
homogeneous  and  as  harmonious  as  any  other  denomination  in 
this  country — our  Church. 

This  organic  oneness  continued  until  the  Synods  south  of  the 
Potomac,  owing  to  conditions  which  no  one  now  voluntarily 
recalls,  separated  from  the  General  Synod  with  which  they  had 
ever  been  of  one  mind  and  one  heart.  At  York,  in  1864,  the 
General  Synod  itself  repeated  the  blunder  which  had  rent  the 
body  in  1823.  The  majority  surrendered  their  deliberate  and 
correct  judgment  to  a  clamoring  minority.  The  action  which 
refused  admission  to  the  Franckeans  Avas  reconsidered,  and  thus 
another  rupture  was  threatened.  Yet  so  strong  was  the  feeling 
for  a  united  Church  that,  in  order  to  calm  the  excitement  and 
preserve  the  integrity  of  the  body,  several  energetic  steps  were 
taken  which  promised  to  insure  this  devoutly  hoped-for  consum- 
mation— steps  so  satisfactory  to  all  that  the  President,  Dr. 
Sprecher,  congratulated  one  of  the  leading  conservatives  for  hav- 
ing saved  the  General  Synod.  The  Ministerium,  accordingly,  so 
far  from  terminating  its  connection,  adopted  the  constitutional 
amendments  which  had  been  officially  sent  down  to  it  and  elected 
a  delegation  to  the  next  Convention. 

A  parliamentary  ruling  caused  a  hitch  in  their  participation 
(1866),  yet  such  was  the  consciousness  of  substantial  agreement 
and  such  the  apprehensions  of  division,  that  neither  party  stood 
ready  to  assume  the  responsibility  for  schism.  Tiie  General  Synod 
requested  the  delegates  of  the  Ministerium  "  to  waive  what  may 
seem  to  them  an  irregular  organization  of  this  body,"  and  repeat- 
edly affirmed  its  readiness  to  receive  them,  while  the  delegates 
averred  their  perfect  willingness  to  acquiesce  in  what  they  deemed 
an  irregular  organization,  and  their  "  readiness  to  take  their  seats 
in  this  body,  equals  among  equals,"  if  the  General  Synod  would 
admit  its  parliamentary  error.  Whether  their  final  separation 
occurred  in  the  active  voice  or  in  the  pa,ssive  voice,  is  a  question 
on  which  no  impartial  jury  has  as  yet  pronounced  a  verdict. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  49 

But  a  more  vital  matter  than  their  outward  association  is  tlie 
historic  relation  of  these  respective  bodies  to  the  Church's  faith. 
To  what  extent  have  we  common  antecedents  in  the  sphere  of 
doctrine  ?  How  far  have  our  bodies  borne  a  common  attitude 
toward  that  Confession  which  Luther  drew  fi'om  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, which  Melanchthon  reduced  to  a  matchless  formula,  and 
whicli,  along  with  the  other  Symbols,  Muhlenberg  made  the  foun- 
dation of  all  the  congregations  he  organized.  History  replies  that 
a  common  faith  even  more  than  the  (virtually)  common  organi- 
zation and  activity  has  characterized  these  bodies.  The  good  con- 
fession which  the  fathers  so  bravely  witnessed  in  the  face  of  the 
fanaticism  and  of  the  sects  which  had  obtruded  into  our  churches, 
has  never  been  abandoned,  corrupted  or  repudiated  by  any  of 
them.  There  have  been  periods  of  forgetfuluess,  of  indifference, 
of  neglect,  yea,  even  of  slackness  and  looseness,  but  thanks  to  the 
indwelling  Spirit  of  Christ,  all  of  our  bodies  have  been  preserved 
from  uttering  one  word  inimical  or  adverse  to  the  doctrines  on 
which  our  Church  is  founded. 

And  these  periods  of  laxity,  neglect  and  ignorance  of  the  Con- 
fession have  been  spread  so  completely  over  all  our  borders,  that 
it  is  historically  unsafe  for  either  body  to  cast  a  stone  at  an- 
other. A  monopoly  of  doctrinal  indifference  cannot  be  justly 
charged  against  any  Lutheran  body  in  this  country.  Formal 
Confessional  subscription  had  disappeared  from  the  mother  Synod 
before  she  organized  the  General  Synod.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  New  York  Synod.  It  was  the  same  everywhere — they  had 
all  gone  out  of  the  way — the  leaven  had  permeated  the  entire 
mass. 

Das  gemeinschaftliche  Gesangbuch  of  1817,  zum  Gebrauch  der 
Lutherischen  und  Reformirten  Gemeinden  in  Nord  Amerika, 
published  at  the  request  of  a  majority  of  the  preachers  of  both 
denominations,  openly  avowed  in  the  preface  of  the  first  edition 
its  aim  "  to  break  down  the  partition  Avail  between  Lutherans  and 
Reformed,  which  is  only  based  on  prejudices."  This  Union 
Hymnal  received  the  recommendation  of  the  Synods  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York  and  North  Carolina — the  unqualified  endorse- 
ment of  our  entire  Church.  Its  chief  merit  to  many  lay  in  its 
4 


50  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

tendency  to  establish  the  beautiful  accord  between  the  Lutheran 
and  the  Reformed  hymns. 

The  ])rojectiou  of  a  theological  seminary  by  the  General  Synod 
roused  that  body  to  the  need  of  a  standard  of  theological  instruc- 
tion, and  as  such  a  standard  it  set  up  the  Augsburg  Confession 
and  the  Catechisms  of  Luther  "  iis  a  summary  and  just  exhibition 
of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  word  of  God."  In  1829  it 
approved  the  Constitution  for  Synods  which  required  a  quasi- 
confessional  subscription.  In  1834  the  same  body  published  a 
German  Hymnbook  which  calls  forth  the  admiration  of  Dr. 
Spaeth,  who  pronounces  it  "a  vast  improvement  on  the  Gemein- 
schaftliche."  In  1835  it  laid  down  the  constitutional  require- 
ment for  membership  that  "  Synods  must  hold  the  essential 
doctrines  of  the  Bible  as  they  are  taught  in  our  Church." 
The  initiative  of  returning  formally  to  the  symbols  must  with- 
out question  be  credited  to  the  General  Synod.  The  Agenda 
of  the  IMinisterium  in  1842,  which  became  also  the  Liturgy  of 
the  General  Synod,  contained  a  form  for  the  installation  of  a 
pastor,  "  in  which  for  the  first  time,  after  a  long  pause,  direct 
reference  is  again  made  [by  the  ]Mini.sterium]  to  the  Confession 
of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church."  But  it  was  only  after 
another  long  pause,  namely  in  1852,  that  the  Synod  once  more 
found  occasion  to  allude  to  its  Confessional  status.  And  then 
the  farthest  it  could  go  was  to  declare  "  that  w^e  have  never  re- 
nounced the  Confessions  of  our  Church,  as  a  faithful  exposition  of 
the  divine  word."  In  April,  1853,  in  connection  with  the  Report 
of  a  committee  defining  the  sense  of  the  phrase  "the  Confession 
of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,"  the  Ministerium.recognized 
that  "  The  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  has  of  late  arrived  at 
clearer  views  of  its  doctrinal  and  other  distinctive  features,"  and 
acknowledged  "  the  collective  body  of  the  Symbolical  Books,  as 
the  historical  and  Confessional  writings  of  the  Evangelical  Luth- 
eran Church,  and  enjoined  all  the  ministers  and  candidates  ■,  .  . 
to  make  themselves  better  or  more  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
these  venerable  documents  of  the  faith,"  but  there  is  still  not  a 
word  about  their  binding  authority,  and  colorless  as  these  resolu- 
tions were.  Professor  Schaefler  wrote :  Some  "  may  possibly  regard 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  51 

them  as  quite  stringent,"  while  others  "  may  find  them  to  be  a 
somewhat  weak  infusion,  but  still,  perhaps,  suited  to  a  state  of 
convalescence." 

It  thus  appears  that  the  Confessional  history  of  the  Ministeriura 
is  far  from  being  an  improvement  on  that  of  the  General  Synod, 
"during  the  years  in  which  she  was  independent  of  it  so  far  as 
organic  union  was  concerned,  but  in  close  relations  in  all  other 
respects."  The  Rev.  Dr.  Jacobs  casts  a  clear  light  on  the  ratio 
of  progress  in  this  direction,  namely,  that  "  the  movement  ad- 
vanced by  a  constant  struggle  in  which  the  deteriorating  process 
often  seemed  not  only  to  be  holding  its  own,  but  even  to  be  able 
to  obtain  greater  triumphs  than  ever."  He  also  admits  that  "in 
many  congregations  of  the  General  Synod  the  conservatism  was 
almost  equally  as  strong  as  in  the  older  Synods  which  stood  aloof." 
Gettysburg  doubtless  fluctuated,  and  by  some  it  was  denounced 
for  being  too  conservative,  while  by  others  it  was  accused  of  lax- 
ness.  The  Franckcans  had  no  more  stomach  for  the  General 
Synod  than  the  Tennesseans.  A  full  generation  elapsed  with- 
out any  controversy  respecting  doctrine  or  worship  between  the 
two  leading  bodies,  and  even  the  organization  of  the  Synod 
of  East  Pennsylvania  had  no  pretext  in  doctrinal  differences. 
Such  grounds  as  the  differences  of  language,  the  size  of  the  old 
body,  the  oppressive  nature  of  "  the  new  or  revi^^ed  Constitution," 
are  given  as  reasons  which  make  a  division  desirable,  but  there  is 
not  a  hint  of  any  dissatisfaction  with  the  Confessional  status  of 
the  old  body.  On  this  point  there  was  at  that  time  substantial 
oneness  in  our  Church. 

While  there  was  a  constant  growth  of  Confessional  and  Churchly 
sentiment — a  deepening  consciousness  that  the  Church  was  not  in 
doctrine  and  life  what  it  ought  to  l)e— the  steady  tide  toward  a 
formal  and  hearty  resumption  of  our  distinctive  faith  did  not  set  in 
until  the  signal  for  it  was  given  by  a  Gettysburg  professor  in  a  ser- 
mon preached  by  him  as  President  of  tlie  General  Synod  at  Charles- 
ton, 1850.  He  described  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country  as 
"in  a  state  of  reaction,"  as  "retracing  her  steps,"  "acknowledging 
her  error,"  "  hunting  among  the  records  of  the  past  for  the  faith 
of  former  days."    "  The  desire  for  the  symbols  of  our  Church,"  he 


52  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

contended,  "the  attention  that  is  paid  to  them,  the  admiration 
that  has  been  expressed  of  them,  tlie  candor  with  wliich  they  are 
viewed,  the  expressed  willingue.ss  on  the  part  of  many,  only  to 
dissent  when  it  cannot  be  avoided,  all  indicate  a  new  state  of 
things — and  are  adapted  to  produce  the  conviction  that  the  Church 
is  disposed  to  renew  her  connection  Avith  the  past,  and  in  lier 
future  progress  to  walk  under  the  guidance  of  the  light  which  it 
has  furnished.  There  is  no  fear  of  any  doctrine  which  our  Sym- 
bols contain,  no  unwillingness  to  give  it  a  fair  examination,  and 
a  predisposition,  rather  than  the  contrary,  to  receive  and  assent." 
These  were  brave  and  heroic  words  for  that  period,  and  they  were 
followed  by  others  still  bolder,  when  he  characterized  the  General 
Synod's  form  of  subscription  to  be  "  such  as  to  admit  of  the  re- 
jection of  any  doctrine  or  doctrines  which  the  subscriber  may  not 
receive,"  holding  that  "a  creed  thus  presented  is  no  creed,  that  it 
is  anything  or  nothing,  that  its  subscription  is  a  solemn  farce." 

When  to  head  off  this  steadily  growing  reaction,  another  Get- 
tysburg professor  in  company  with  several  other  eminent  men 
ventured  a  recension  of  the  Confession,  eliminating  the  distinctive 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  and  charging  it  with  errors,  the  General 
Synod  with  one  voice  vindicated  the  soundness  of  the  Confession 
by  declaring  it  to  be  "in  perfect  consistence  with  the  Scriptures," 
and  superseded  its  equivocal  subscription  by  a  form,  which  ac- 
cording to  the  sworn  testimony  of  a  contemporary,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
J.  A.  Brown,  requires  of  Synods  the  "unequivocal  and  uncondi- 
tional acceptance  of  the  Augsburg  Confession."  Whether  the 
Mother  Synod's  official  acceptance  of  the  Confession  antedates  or 
follows  this  action,  there  intervened  at  most  but  a  few  years,  and 
those  who  were  mainly  influential  in  bringing  her  back  to  the 
faith,  were  almost  to  a  n)an  reared  in  the  General  Synod  or 
trained  at  Gettysburg,  which  was  ever  regarded  as  the  embodi- 
ment and  exponent  of  General  Synod  sentiment.  That  was  our 
Seminary  then,  and  some  of  us  from  the  three  bodies  here  pre- 
sent know  from  what  fountain  we  drank  Lutheran  theology 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago. 

That  there  was  a  doctrinal  consensus  of  the  General  Synod  and 
the  INIinisterium  even  at  the  time  of  the  disruption  appears, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  53 

1.  From  the  fact  that  no  imputation  against  the  doctrinal 
soundness  of  either  body  appears  in  tiie  proceedings  at  Fort 
Wayne. 

2.  From  the  formal  invitation  which  the  INIinisterium  after  its 
withdrawal  sent  to  a  number  of  Synods  adhering  to  the  General 
Synod,  asking  them  to  unite  in  forming  a  new  general  body. 

3.  From  the  fact  that  the  pen  which  drew  the  Fundamental 
Principles  of  Faith  and  Church  Polity,  wrote  also,  just  a  few 
years  before,  the  Constitutional  Amendment  which  now  forms 
the  General  Synod's  basis. 

4.  From  the  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 
which  after  judicially  weighing  "  the  arguments  and  opinions  of 
celebrated  and  learned  divines,"  the  chosen  champions  of  the  con- 
tending parties  in  the  Allentown  case,  decided  that  the  difference 
in  their  Confessional  subscriptions  "  is  a  difference  of  phraseology 
without  any  real  difference  in  substance,"  "  an  attempted  distinc- 
tion "  that  "  is  incomprehensible  to  the  judicial  mind,"  the  Hudi- 
brastic  distinction  "  'twixt  tweedle  dum  and  tweedle  dee." 

5.  From  the  admissions  made  by  eminent  representatives  of 
the  Council  and  the  General  Synod  at  the  Lutheran  Diet  in 
1878. 

The  General  Synod  does  not  even  now  demand  of  its  district 
Synods  the  acknowledgment  of  all  the  Symbolical  Books,  but  it 
has  never  antagonized  a  doctrine  or  definition  contained  therein, 
and  it  was  the  testimony  under  oath  of  a  most  honorable  living 
witness.  Rev.  Dr.  Baum,  that  in  the  General  Synod's  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Confession  reference  must  be  had  to  the  other  Sym- 
bolical Books,  "  that  fidelity  to  the  Lutheran  Church  binds  us  to 
make  no  interpretation  of  the  Articles  of  the  Augustana,  which 
are  at  variance  with  the  interpretations  contained  in  the  other 
books."  And  here,  too,  the  learned  and  august  tribunal  referred 
to  above  ruled  that  "  the  distinction  sought  to  be  made  does  not 
exist  in  fact  or  substance." 

It  may  be  questioned  too,  whether  each  and  all  of  these  Sym- 
bols are  now  cited  more  frequently  in  the  theological  schools  of 
one  body  than  in  those  of  the  other. 

Our  respective  bodies  up  to  1866  made  use  of  common  devo- 


54  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

tional  niauuals.  A  German  Hymn  book  for  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church,  published  in  1849  by  ecclesiastical  authoritj', 
was  the  product  of  a  joint  committee  appointed  respectively  by 
the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania,  of  New  York  and  of  West  Pennsyl" 
vania.  "  The  friendly  co-operation  of  other  Synods  "  was  soli. 
cited  by  the  Mother  Synod,  and  the  two  other  bodies  named  cor- 
dially participated  in  the  preparation  and  introduction  of  the 
new  book,  the  West  Pennsylvaiiia  representation  on  the  Com- 
mittee being  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker,  Jacob  Albert  and  A.  G.  Dein- 
inger. 

A  more  Churchly  and  Confessional  spirit  breathes  in  thisworki 
marking  as  it  does  "  the  first  weak  beginnings  "  of  the  revival  of 
a  true  Lutheran  consciousness.  Dr.  Spaeth  calls  it  a  cross  "  be- 
tween the  spirit  of  a  sound  historic  Lutheranism  and  a  constant 
yielding  to  the  modern  spirit  which  had  been  rulirg  our  liturgi- 
cal and  hymnological  literature  for  fifty  years." 

And  so  a  common  English  hymnal  was  the  aim  of  all  using 
the  English  tongue.  The  New  York  collection  of  1814,  Arianiz- 
iug,  Pelagiunizing,  savoring  of  rationalism,  ignoring  the  Trinity, 
casting  other  vital  truths  into  the  background,  and  wholly  inno- 
cent of  Lutheran  doctrine,  this  travesty  of  Lutheranism  was 
used  in  many  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  churclies,  and  in 
Albany  and  some  rural  districts  of  New  York,  as  late  as  1865. 
And  so  far  was  the  General  Synod  from  condemning  it  that 
when  it  published  a  Hynm  Book  in  1828  it  so  arranged  its  col- 
lection that  "  both  books  can  be  used  together  without  incon- 
venience." This  collection  of  the  General  Synod  which  well 
deserved  such  criticisms  as  "Methodistical,"  "sensational,"  "a 
deification  of  frames  and  feelings,"  appeared  in  1841  in  an  en- 
larged edition  in  which  "a  reckless  inconsistency  in  doctrine, 
temper,  style  and  spirit  runs  riot,"  "low  church  and  broad 
church  mixed  into  an  agreeable  compound,  presenting  some  of 
the  worst  qualities  of  both,"  and  for  eleven  years  this  was  the 
common  hymnal  of  most  of  our  English  churches ;  though,  as 
has  well  been  said,  it  might  have  served  for  the  hardshell  Bap- 
tists or  for  a  negro  camp-meeting.  The  choice  of  English  con- 
gregations   lay   between   the   New    York    collection,   which    a 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  55 

competent  judge  has  pronounced  "a  cross  of  high  Arianism 
and  a  mild  loose  form  of  old-style  orthodoxy,"  and  the  General 
Synod's,  which  the  same  authority  criticizes  as  "  an  agreeable 
mixture  of  Methodism,  Presbyterianism,  and  a  gentle  tincture 
of  our  ov.'U  faith."  A  somewhat  improved  edition  of  the  latter 
appeared  in  1850,  but  all  our  successive  English  hymnals  were 
in  those  days  only  new  and  slightly  modified  editions  of  some 
predecessor — and  this  later  one,  charged  with  "  Un-Lutheran, 
anti-Lutheran,  Puritanic,  Methodistic  and  Humanitarian  leaven, 
was  used  until  1865  by  almost  the  entire  English  Lutheran 
Church." 

So  we  always  had  in  like  manner  a  common  Liturgy — no  one 
dreaming  of  anything  else. '  Prior  to  the  formation  of  the  General 
Synod  the  Ministerium  had  its  German  Liturgy  and  the  New 
York  Synod  its  English  order.  When,  in  1825,  the  General 
Synod  first  undertook  to  provide  a  Liturgy,  neither  of  these 
Synods  was  connected  with  it,  yet  its  Liturgical  Committee, 
charged  with  the  preparation  of  a  Liturgy  and  a  collection  of 
prayers  in  English,  was  instructed  to  "  adhere  particularly  to  the 
New  York  Hymn  Book  and  German  Liturgy  of  Pennsylvania 
as  their  guides." 

In  1831  a  large  "  Editing  Committee"  was  again  directed  to 
publish  a  liturgy  in  the  English  language,  "  having  reference  to 
the  works  of  this  kind  now  used  in  different  parts  of  our  Church." 

In  1835  the  Ministerium  "endorsed  and  introduced  "  the  New 
York  Synod's  last  edition  of  the  Liturgy  as  "  the  new  Liturgy  for 
its  English  congregations,"  and  "  requested  the  General  Synod 
to  do  likewise  for  the  sake  of  uniformity,"  whereupon  the 
General  Synod  in  1837  directed  a  committee  of  seven  clergy- 
men to  examine  the  Liturgy  and  prayers  of  the  New  York 
Synod,  and  if  they  found  the  last  edition  meeting  the  wants  of 
the  Church  to  have  "  said  Liturgy  and  prayers  appended  to  our 
Hymn  Book." 

In  1839  the  Ministerium  appointed  a  committee  "  to  prepare  a 
new  edition  of  our  Church  Liturgy,  in  an  improved  and  more 
complete  form,"  and  at  the  same  time  notified  this  action  "  to  all 
the  other  Synods  of  the  Church  who  used  this  Liturgy,"  and 


56  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

invited  tlieru  fraternally  to  co-operate  in  tliis  work — an  invita- 
tion ^Yhicll  the  General  Synod  cordially  accepted,  authoriziug  its 
Committee  on  Liturgy  "  to  co-operate  with  the  Synod  of  Penn- 
sylvania on  the  same  subject  in  preparing  a  uniform  Liturgy  for 
the  use  of  the  Church."  Thus  arose  the  first  Joint  Committee  on 
a  Common  Service,  even  the  Synod  of  Ohio  uniting. 

The  result,  with  a  few  changes,  was  adopted  by  the  Minis- 
terium  in  1841,  and  the  General  Synod  at  its  next  convention 
in  1843  recommended  it  "  as  suitable  for  adoption  among  our 
German  Churches  generally." 

At  the  same  time  ('41)  the  Ministerium  appointed  the  use  of 
the  Liturgy  of  the  Synod  of  New  York  in  its  English  Churches, 
expressing  the  hope  that  "  the  General  Synod  will  adopt  said 
Liturgy,  and  uniformity  in  our  churches  be  thus  secured  and 
promised."  But  the  General  Synod  appointed  a  committee  to 
furnish  an  English  Liturgy,  which  at  the  next  Convention 
reported  its  purpose  "  to  translate  the  Liturgy  of  the  Synod  of 
Pennsylvania,"  for  which  it  claimed  the  following  advantages : 
(1)  "  It  is  more  complete  thau  the  other  English  Liturgies.  (2) 
It  is  in  the  strictest  sense  the  Liturgy  of  the  Amcricau  Lutheran 
Church,  inasmuch  as  it  sprang  from  that  portion  of  the  Church 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all,  and  which  is  still  held  in  the  high- 
est reverence  by  the  oldest  congregations  of  our  deuoniination. 
(3)  If  uniformity  be  desired,  it  will  be  reached  by  the  adoption 
of  these  forms.  Whether  we  attend  German  or  English  service, 
we  hear  the  pastor  as  he  stands  before  the  altar,  utter  the  same 
truths,  address  us  in  the  same  manner,  and  pour  out  the  same 
prayer  before  the  Hearer  of  prayer.  (4)  No  other  Liturgy  can 
have  the  same  historical  associations.  (5)  As  a  large  jmrtion  of 
the  Church,  namely,  the  Synods  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York  and 
Ohio,  as  well  as  the  General  Synod,  have  already  adopted  the 
German  Liturgy,  it  appears  to  be  evidently  necessai'y,  or  at  least 
highly  desirable,  that  not  merely  a  work  resembling  this,  but 
rather,  if  it  is  possible,  the  very  same  w^ork  should  be  published 
in  the  English  language."  The  signatures  to  this  memorable 
report  are  Charles  Philip  Krauth,  B.  Kurtz,  W.  M.  Reynolds, 
Ezra  Keller,  J.  G.  Morris,  C.  A.  Smith.     And  their  advocacy 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  57 

in  the  Preface  of  "a  Common  Liturgy,"  of  "common  forms,"  of 
"  uniformity  in  the  public  woi'ship," of  "the  use  of  one  Liturgy 
througliout  a  whole  Church,"  as  conducive  to  "order,"  as 
serving  "  to  give  character  to  a  Church,"  as  presenting  "  a  sum- 
mary expose  of  its  doctrines,"  as  begetting  a  homelike  feeling 
when  one  visits  "distant  divisions  of  their  own  household  of 
faith,"  makes  seasonable  and  profitable  reading  a  half  century 
after  its  first  publication. 

The  Ministerium  was,  of  course,  gratified  with  this  translation 
of  its  German  Agenda,  and  though  faulting  somewhat  the  Eng- 
lish rendering,  recommended  it  for  the  use  of  its  congregations, 
and  resolved,  "  That  we  rejoice  that  our  brethren  of  the  General 
Synod  have  translated  our  Liturgy  into  the  English  language, 
.  .  .  and  that  we  hope  that  this  may  be  the  means  of  promoting 
greater  harmony,  and  of  strengthening  the  fraternal  relations 
between  us  and  them,  and  the  entire  Church."   This  was  in  1849. 

This  review  of  our  liturgical  history  clearly  evinces  a  con- 
scious and  cordial  unity  between  our  several  bodies.  All  the 
liturgical  development  from  1839  to  1860  was  a  joint  work  of  the 
Ministerium  and  the  General  Synod,  with  which  the  former 
always  stood  in  close,  if  not  organic,  relations,  and  our  worship 
was  ever  so  ordered  as  "  to  promote  greater  harmony  and 
strengthen  fraternal  feeling."  The  relations  of  the  New  York 
Synod  and  the  Ministerium  were  always  characterized  on  this 
point  "by  reciprocity  and  friendly  harmonious  co-operation,"  and 
the  General  Synod  was  ever  marked  by  "  an  unmistakable  tend- 
ency to  have  an  understanding  with  the  Ministerium  on  liturgi- 
cal matters,  to  use  and  recommend  its  work." 

From  the  earliest  years  of  the  General  Synod  we  discover 
throughout  our  Church  a  revival  of  the  spirit  of  Muhlenberg, 
who  fervently  prayed  that  "all  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Churches  might  be  united  with  one  another,"  and  prophesied 
that  this  would  be  realized  were  all  to  "use  the  same  order  of 
Service,  the  same  Hymn  Book,  and  in  good  and  evil  days  would 
show  an  active  8ymj)athy  and  fraternally  correspond  with  one 
another."  How  completely  in  accord  with  this  was  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  General  Synod  in  lh'43  when  it  declared  that  "  uni- 


58  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

formity  in  public  worship  is  highly  desirable,  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  good  Liturgy  is  well  calculated  to  accomplish  this 
object." 

The  uniform  Catechism  which  ]Mulilenl>erg  had  so  earnestly 
desired  never  materialized,  because  of  the  unhappy  practice  of 
publishing  individual  and  private  editions,  but  whatever  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  these  numerous  publications,  they  were 
pretty  much  all,  until  a  generation  ago,  marked  by  an  ignoring 
or  dilution  of  Lutheran  doctrine.  In  the  General  Synod  there 
was  long  in  use  a  German  edition  approved  by  the  Synod  of  West 
Pennsylvania,  which  was  virtually  a  reprint  (1845)  of  the  "Old 
Catechism  of  the  Ministerium,  with  nearly  the  same  Addenda, 
including  the  Augsburg  Confession."  Mayer's  English  Cate- 
chism, in  1816,  in  which  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  the  Church 
were  not  prominent,  was  reissued  almost  verbatim  by  the  General 
Synod  in  1825,  with  sundry  foot  notes,  modifying,  somewhat,  tho 
doctrine  of  the  text. 

Furthermore,  in  our  periodical  literature  our  antecedents  are 
the  same.  The  Observer  was,  in  its  earlier  decades,  the  paper  of 
the  whole  English  portion  of  the  Church,  and,  while  teeming  with 
reports  of  revivals,  it  also  stoutly  defended  our  distinctive  usages, 
catechization  and  confirmation  over  against  the  incoming  Avaves 
of  "new  measures."  Along  with  rejoicings  over  awakened  con- 
gregations, it  warned  against  "all  methods  not  strictly  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Gospel,"  "devices  of  human  wisdom,"  "mechani- 
cal contrivances  for  saving  souls,"  and  deprecated  "the  departure 
from  our  biblical  usages."  Even  Editor  Kurtz  sounded  the 
alarm  against  "the  man-made  religi'-n  of  the  day."  In  its  first 
volume  (1830)  it  quotes  the  Symbolical  Books  as  authoritative 
in  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  it  numbered  among  its  frequent 
contributors  the  Schaefiers,  John  N.  Hoffman  and  others  whose 
names  stand  for  Lutheran  loyalty.  In  the  crisis  of  1864-1866 
its  editors  were  so  conservative  that  on  the  decisive  question  at 
Fort  Wayne  one  of  them  sided  with  the  Pennsylvania  delegation, 
and  the  other  two  declined  to  vote. 

The  Evangelical  Revieio  was  founded  at  Gettysburg  in  1849 
"to  promote   proper   union   and  co-operation   in  the  Lutheran 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  59 

Cliurcli  of  this  country."  Recognizing  tlie  emergence  of  diversi- 
ties of  view  along  with  the  revival  of  a  Lutheran  consciousness, 
and,  apprehensive  that  conflicting  elements  were  in  great  danger 
of  having  their  sympathies  entirely  alienated  from  one  another, 
its  projectors  proposed  the  Review  as  a  remedy  or  preventive. 
Here  "all  parts  of  the  Church  should  meet  each  other  as  upon 
neutral  ground  and  hold  friendly  intercourse  and  exchange 
opinions  with  each  other."  "Here,"  the  introduction  proceeds, 
"they  will  find  that  they  have  much  in  common — a  common 
origin,  a  common  history,  common  sympathies,  and  many  common 
tendencies,  religious  principles  and  usages."  Acknowledging 
the  modifications  which  a  part  of  the  Church  had  undergone, 
referring  probably  to  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee  Synods,  it  ex- 
pressed the  belief  that  "the  Church  is  still  essentially  one,  and 
has  a  common  substratum  of  doctrinal  and  religious  character 
which  only  requires  to  be  properly  developed  in  order  to  bring 
us  together  in  that  oneness  of  faith  which  has  always  so  strongly 
characterized  the  Lutheran  Church."  The  editor  knows  of  "no 
tendency  to  the  absolute  separation  of  different  sections  from 
each  other."  Notwithstanding  different  views  and  violent  colli- 
sions, "we  have  never  yet  formed  a  'New  Lutheran'  or  an  'Old 
Lutheran,'  a  '  Radical '  or  a  'Conservative '  Lutheran  Church." 
"  No  part  of  the  Church  has  ever  yet  formally  announced  its  re- 
jection of  the  Augsburg  Confession  or  the  Shorter  Catechism,  or, 
in  short,  of  any  of  our  Symbolical  Books."  "Nor  has  there  yet 
been  any  serious  attempt  to  set  up  any  other  doctrinal  basis  as  a 
substitute  for  them,  or  anything  like  a  denial  of  the  Lutheran 
character  of  those  who  receive  them.  Nothing  was  then  known 
that  could  "prevent  us  from  growing  up  into  one  body,"  and 
grounds  of  hope  were  seen  for  the  "  ultimate  union  of  all  parts  of 
the  Lutheran  Church,  both  in  doctrinal  views  and  external  or- 
ganization." What  was  needed  was  that  "we  should  both  know 
ourselves  and  know  each  other,  as  Lutherans."  All  parts  of  the 
Church  were  to  have  a  hearing,  "for  it  is  only  by  the  compai'ison 
of  opposite  views  that  we  are  harmonized  in  feelings  and  united 
in  action."  "  If,  therefore,  the  most  opposite  views  should  be  ex- 
pressed in  this  lievieiv  we  shall  by  no  means  despair  of  reconciling 


60  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

them  or  of  finally  bringing  together,  in  the  unity  of  our  common 
faith,  the  differeut  parties  that  advance  them." 

Tliiri  journal  avowed  its  position  as  "  Lutheran  in  the  broadest 
and  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term,"  "  consecrated  especially  to 
the  interests,  to  the  history,  to  the  theology,  to  the  literature  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.  And,  as  a  necessary  result  of  this,  it  belongs 
to  no  particular  school  or  party  in  the  Lutheran  Church."  The 
discussions  and  controversies  expected  in  its  pages  were  viewed  as 
"  the  necessary  means  for  the  establishment  of  peace  and  union 
among  us." 

Published  at  Gettysburg,  the  Review  became  the  drum-beat  for 
pronounced  Lutheran  views.  Its  second  editor,  C.  Philip  Krauth^ 
who  had  the  hardihood  to  translate  Schmid's  Dogmatik,  declared 
"  unequivocally  in  behalf  of  the  study,  the  thorough  study,  of  this 
theology;  we  would  have  it  thrown  over  our  Church  with  a 
liberal  hand,  we  would  have  all  our  ministers  acquainted  with 
the  Symbolical  Books;  we  would  have  them  all  versed  in  the  dis- 
tinctive theology  of  the  Church.  We  would  have  introduced 
into  our  theological  schools  the  study  of  the  Symbols,  and  didactic 
and  polemic  theology  so  administered  as  to  bring  before  the  view 
pure,  unadulterated  Lutheranism.  The  gain  to  our  ministry  and 
to  our  Church  Avould  be  immense,  if  this  course  were  adopted." 
He  notes  "  the  increasing  desire  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church,"  and  recognizes  the  demand  for  the  Sym- 
bolical Books  as  symptomatic  of  the  fact  that  "the  time  has 
passed  away  in  which  we  are  to  assume  every  phase  which  may 
be  presented  to  us,  to  glory  that  we  are  like  everybody,  and,  con- 
sequently, are  nothing  in  ourselves,  living  only  by  the  breath  of 
others." 

A  contributor,  Y.  S.  R.,  in  January,  1851,  urges  that  the 
Theological  Seminary  "  should  teach  the  doctrines  of  the  Church 
as  contained  in  her  Symbols."  If  eclectic  doctrines  are  taught,  or 
those  of  other  churches  not  in  harmony  with  our  Symbols,  "it 
follows  necessarily  that  the  Seminary  becomes  the  greatest  enemy 
of  the  Church,  which  it  professes  to  uphold." 

With  the  continued  good  understanding  and  fraternal  accord, 
with  this  community  of  doctrine,  worship  and  literature,  it  natur- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  61 

ally  and  actually  follows  that  to  a  marked  degree  sameness  of 
usage  and  practice,  spirit  and  life  obtained  in  the  different  bodies. 
Conditions  were  strikingly  similar,  if  not  actually  identical.  Pas- 
tors and  people  crossed  synodical  bounds,  and  transferred  their 
membership  without  discovering  any  material  difference  or  varia- 
tion. Many  evils,  drawbacks,  difficulties,  burdens,  were  common 
to  both  bodies,  though  perhaps  not  in  the  same  degree,  nor  always 
contemporaneously.  An  unprogressive,  stolid  element  had  to  be 
dealt  with  in  all  parts  of  the  Church.  The  transition  from  Ger- 
man to  English  Avas  stubbornly  resisted  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
as  well  as  in  Pennsylvania.  We  came  to  be  generally  and  cor- 
rectly designated  as  the  slow  Lutherans,  and  though  beyond 
question  the  General  Synod  was  the  more  progressive  body,  all 
Avere  slow  enough.  As  the  Old  Synod  was  more  predominantly 
German,  its  preachers  and  people  were  more  effectually  held  back 
and  aloof  from  the  movements  and  measures  which  fostered  the 
growth  of  other  denominations,  and  enriched  them  with  those  of 
our  own  blood  and  faith.  There,  preeminently,  several  genera- 
tions grew  up  without  any  proper  education,  a  corrupt  dialect 
being  the  mtdium  of  social  intercourse,  while  the  language  of 
schools,  books,  periodicals  and  courts  was  unintelligible  to  young 
and  old  alike. 

And  when  the  fever  of  fanaticism  followed  the  torpor  of  for- 
malism, this  again  was  not  confined  to  one  body.  "Peculiar 
seasons  of  refreshment "  are  recorded  Avithin  the  bounds  of  the 
Mother  Synod  as  in  the  General  Synod, — east  of  the  Susque- 
hanna as  well  as  west,— south  of  the  Potomac  as  well  as  north. 
Even  the  Henkels  did  not  escape  the  contagion,  and  the  Minis- 
rium  will  not  disown  such  names  as  Helmuth,  Ruthrauff,  Ger- 
hard, Keller,  Schaeffer,  Hoffman,  Sahm  and  Baker.  So  also  the 
opposition  to  those  "  New  Measures  "  was  quite  as  pronounced  in 
the  General  Synod  as  in  the  Mother  body.  The  question  among 
the  cooler  and  more  deliberate  heads  was,  in  the  words  of  Heyer, 
"  Whether  to  adhere  to  the  old  European  Church  order,  or  in 
some  respects  pursue  the  same  measures  adopted  by  other  denomi- 
nations by  which  we  are  surrounded,  if  we  wish  to  maintain  the 
number  and  efficiency  of  our  congregations." 


C2  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Such  then  is  our  ancestral  descent — a  Church  which  though  for 
a  time  divided  into  sepiirate  folds,  yet  always  maintained  cordial 
reciprocal  relations,  contemplated  organic  unity,  and  was  up  to 
1866  to  all  intents  one  Church,  one  in  doctrine,  education,  wor- 
ship and  life.  The  idea  that  the  General  Synod  stands  for  a 
particular  tyjje  of  Luthcranism  was  hatched  from  the  exigencies 
of  controversy.  And  of  a  piece  with  it,  is  the  claim  that  the 
American  Synods  now  a  part  of  the  General  Council  stood  in  the 
past  for  sound  doctrine  and  orthodox  measures. 

1  do  not  affirm  that  there  was  no  difference,  nor  do  I  forget  that 
thure  was  often  heard  in  the  land  the  voice  of  the  self-elected 
champion,  who  imagines  himself  the  incarnation  of  liis  school  or 
party,  and  who  with  Pharisaic  self-sufficiency  fulminates  whole- 
sale anathemas  against  the  other  side ;  but  it  is  the  verdict  of 
history  that  there  never  was  a  gulf  fixed  separating  the  true 
Lutherans  from  the  bastards ;  there  never  were  two  flocks,  the 
one  made  up  of  white  sheep,  the  other  of  black. 

Our  historic  antecedents  were  exactly  the  reverse  of  this. 
Under  Muhlenberg  and  his  co-laborers  there  burst  forth  in  the 
desert  a  stream  of  blessing.  Growing  in  volume  and  in  breadth, 
this  stream  gradually  assumed  a  devious  and  crooked  course, 
meandering  sluggishly  around  the  cliffs  and  headlands  in  its  path, 
but  at  last  it  cut  for  itself  again  by  dint  of  its  inherent  strength 
a  straight  and  rectilinear  channel,  which  it  has  steadily  followed 
for  half  a  century.  The  current  has  not  been  always  and  every- 
where equally  swift,  equally  deep  or  equally  clear.  There  have 
been  ebbs  and  floods,  eddies  and  rapids.  Obstructions  have  not 
been  wanting  here  and  there,  and  occasional  storms  have  in  places 
troubled  or  muddied  the  broad  expanse ;  but  it  has  been  every- 
where and  always  the  same  water,  the  same  historic  glorious 
stream,  the  same  river  of  life,  bearing  in  its  bosom  the  unsearch- 
able riches  of  grace  and  truth  and  salvation  for  mankind. 


PEOCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  63 


OUR  COMxMON  HISTORIC  ANTECEDENTS. 

BY   PROF.   J.   NICUM,    D.D. 

Webster  defines  "antecedents"  as  "the  earlier  events  of  one's 
life,  previous  principles,  conduct,  course,  history  ;"  the  Standard 
Dictionary,  as  "the  facts,  circumstances,  etc.,  collectively,  that 
have  gone  before  in  the  history  of  any  person  or  thing."  Our 
subject  may,  therefore,  be  more  fully  stated  thus :  a  delineation 
of  the  principles  of  faith  and  church-life  which  characterized  the 
establishment  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country,  and  the 
history  of  its  early  and  later  development.  Up  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century  the  development  of  the  Chui-ch  was 
"  common  "  to  all  parts  of  the  Church.  There  were,  indeed,  two 
Synods,  but  there  was  no  alienation,  no  strife.  This  division  of 
the  Church  was  not  on  doctrinal  grounds,  but  for  geographical 
reasons  simply.  The  relations  between  the  Synods  then  existing, 
the  Mother  Synod  and  the  New  York  Ministerium,  were  of  a 
most  cordial  nature,  and  all  the  Lutheran  ministers  and  cliurches 
in  this  country  were  either  members  of  these  two  bodies,  or  were 
in  close  relation  with  them.  This  harmonious  and  blessed  rela- 
tion of  all  parts  of  the  Lutheran  Church  was  brought  about, 
under  God,  chiefly  by  the  labors  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Melchior 
Muhlenberg  and  his  co-workers,  notably  Dr.  Kunze.  "Wherever 
Muhlenberg  built,  and  his  field  of  labor  extended  from  New 
York  and  Rhinebeck  in  the  north  to  Charleston  and  Savannah 
in  the  south,  he  built  upon  the  solid  and  tried  foundation  of  the 
Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  other  Symbolical  Books 
of  the  Lutheran  Church.  The  Lutheran  Church  in  America  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  all  her  life  and 
manifestations,  bore  the  imprint  of  the  healthy  and  evangelical 
confessional  ism  of  Muhlenberg. 

As  this  General  Conference  has  been  called  for  a  "  comparison 
of  views  on  various  doctrinal,  liturgical,  educational,  and  mis- 
sionary interests"  (Min.  Gen.  Council,  1895,  p.  17),  permit  me 
to  present  a  brief  account  of  Our  Common  Historical  Antece- 
dents, especially  with  reference  to  the  doctrinal  interest.     We 


64  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

will  first  view  the  doctrinal  position  of  Lutheran  pastors  and 
churclies  in  this  country  up  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

I.  The  first  Lutherans  who  settled  lit-re  in  larger  nunil)ers  were 
the  Stvechs.  Tiiey  began  to  arrive  in  1638.  In  1639  the  Rev. 
Reorus  Torkillus  came  as  pastor  of  the  colonists.  Among  the 
instructions  which  the  governor  received  from  the  Swedish 
government  was  the  following :  "  Care  shall  be  taken  that  divine 
service  be  zealously  performed  according  to  the  Unaltered  Augs- 
burg Confession  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Swedish  Church." 
And  these  SAvedes  have  not  been  without  influence  upon  the  early 
history  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania. 

About  ten  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  Swedes  on  the 
Delaware  Dutch  Lutheran  Churches  were  established  along  the 
Hudson,  in  New  York  and  Albany.  The  Constitution  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  Holland  binds  all  preachers  to  teach  accord- 
ing to  the  rule  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  forbids  them  to  depart 
from  either  the  doctrine  or  the  mode  of  expresision  "  of  our  Sym- 
bolical Books,  viz.,  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  of  Faith, 
its  Apology,  the  Smalcald  Articles,  and  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
together  with  the  two  Catechisms  of  Luther."  The  Consistory  at 
Amsterdam  made  it  obligatory  upon  all  Lutheran  pastors  in 
Holland  to  preach  annually  at  least  one  sermon  on  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  held  to  strict  account  all  who,  in  any  wise, 
departed  from  this  standard.  Though  not  one  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Dutch  Lutheran  cliurches  in  New  York  or  Albany  is 
to-day  a  member  of  one  of  our  Lutheran  churches,  still  the  in- 
fluence of  these  Dutch  churches  has  not  been  lost.  It  sliows  itself, 
e.  g.,  in  the  Constitution  for  congregations  prepared  by  Muhlen- 
berg. In  a  petition  presented  to  the  Council  at  New  Amsterdam 
(New  York)  the  Lutheran  congregation  styles  itself,  "  Tlie  united 
members  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,"  and  begs  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  be  tolerated.  Similar 
statements  occur  rejieatedly  in  the  history  of  the  Dutch  Lutheran 
churches.  In  1728,  after  having  been  deceived  by  a  clerical 
impostor,  the  Church  at  Hackensack  resolved  "  in  future  to  recog- 
nize none  as  a  Lutheran  preacher  unless  became  to  us  with  testi- 
monials of  a  Lutheran  Consistory  in  Europe,  or  of  the  Swedish 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.       65 

pastors  in  Pennsylvania,  stating  that  he  heartily  receives  the 
Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  of  Faith."  The  Consistory  of 
Trinity  Church  in  Loudon  is  requested  to  send  them  a  minister, 
who  would  "  preach  the  Word  of  God  in  its  purity,  according  to 
the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  and  all  the  other  Synil)olical 
Books  of  our  Lutheran  Church."  ^  The  deed  to  the  parcel  of 
laud  which,  in  1727,  was  granted  to  the  Lutheran  Church  at 
Loonenhurg,  near  Albany,  N.  Y.,  states,  that  in  the  church  edi- 
fice to  be  erected  upon  this  ground  the  Gospel  must  always  be 
preached  according  to  the  "  unalterable  "  Augsburg  Confe&sion/' 
Not  less  faithful  to  the  confessions  were  the  imviigrants  from 
southwestern  Germany,  who  began  to  pour  into  New  York  in 
1708  and  the  following  years.  They  were  mostly  served  by  the 
pastors  of  the  Dutch  churches,  "What  they  required  of  their 
ministers  is  shown  in  the  petition  of  Trinity  Church,  in  the  city 
of  New  York;  to  Governor  Clinton,  in  which  they  claim  title  to 
the  glebe  at  Newhurg  given  to  the  Lutherans  by  Queen  Anne. 
The  call  cited  in  that  petition, — and  it  is  similar  to  the  form  of  voca- 
tion issued  by  the  other  churches — states  that  the  pastor  "min- 
ister unto  us  as  well  in  preaching  the  Holy  Gospel  purely,  accord- 
ing to  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Symbolical  Books  of  our 
Lutheran  Church,  as  in  administering  the  sacraments  according 
to  Christ's  institution,  and  practicing  the  usual  ceremonies  of  the 
fellow-believers  of  the  Unalterable  Augsburg  Confession"^  In 
the  call  which,  in  1731,  the  German  Lutheran  churches  in  New 
Jersey,  sent  to  Hamburg  for  a  pastor,  they  specified  that  such 
minister  "  in  ritualibus  conform  to  the  liturgy  of  the  Dutch 
churches  of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  as  published  in 
Amsterdam  "  (1689). *  We  may  also  refer  to  the  famous  Neio 
Rhineheck  and  Sharon  church  case,  where  the  deed  to  the  real 
estate  required  the  "  teaching  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  of  Faith  and  the  other  standards  of  the  Lutheran 
Church."  *  These  churches  had  united  with  the  Franckean 
Synod  which  had  published  a  confession  of  its  own,  repudiating 

1  Graebner,  179.  ^  Hartwick  Mem.,  197. 

3  Documentary  History,  III.  590  ff. 
*  Graebner,  231.  *  1  Sandford  Chancery,  439. 

5 


66  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

in  fact  the  Augsburg  Confession.  It  is  well  to  remember  that 
large  numbers  of  these  Lutheran  settlers  along  the  Hud.-^ou,  and 
in  Schoharie  immigrated  to  eastern  Pennsylvania,  Ibrming  the 
nucleus  of  a  number  of  our  oldest  churches  in  the  so-called 
Pennsylvania-German  counties. 

And  what  may  we  expect  from  the  Salzburg  Settlements  in 
Georgia  t  From  people  who  for  conscience's  and  truth's  sake  left 
their  homes  in  midwinter  and  sought  refuge  in  the  New  World, 
where  they  could  have  the  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  confessions  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  ?  In  accepting  the  aid  offered  by  the  King  of  England, 
the  Salzburg  refugees  made  it  a  condition,  "  that  they  should  be 
protected  in  the  free  exercise  of  their  holy  religion  as  contained 
in  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  other  Symbolical  Books  of 
the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church."  ^  And  the  confessional  posi- 
tion of  their  pastors,  Boltzius  and  Gronau,  is  well  known. 

Essentially  the  same  conservative  spirit  and  fidelity  to  the 
Lutheran  Confessions  we  find  among  the  settlements  in  North  and 
South  Carolina.  When  in  1776,  St.  John's  Church  in  Charles- 
ton sent  a  call  to  Europe  for  a  pastor,  which  call  was  signed  by 
all  the  church  oflicers  and  the  contributing  members,  they  speci- 
fied what  kind  of  man  they  wanted,  to  wit :  "  one  able  and  willing 
to  propagate  the  Gospel  according  to  the  foundations  of  the  holy 
Apostles  and  Prophets,  and  to  administer  the  holy  Sacraments 
agreeably  to  the  articles  of  our  Unaltered  Augustana."  "  The 
Constitution  of /S«.  John's  Church  in  Cabarrus  Co.,N.  C,  adopted 
in  1782,  required  of  the  pastor  that  he  confess  himself  with  heart 
and  mouth  to  the  Symbolical  Books  of  our  Evangelical  Church. 
It  prescribes  the  order  of  church  service,  including  a  brief  cat- 
chetical  exercise  after  the  sermon  and  the  Liturgy  in  use  in  St. 
James'  chapel,  in  London.^ 

We  now  come  to  consider  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  man 
who  is  called  the  patriarch  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  coun- 
try. In  his  certificate  of  ordination,  which  among  others  bears 
the  signature  of  the  celebrated  Deyling,  it  is  stated  that  Muhlen- 

1  Mann,  "  Lutheranism  in  America,"  117.         "  Beruheiin,  21S  f. 
8  lb.,  252  ff. 


PEOCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  67 

berg  solemnly  promised  that  he  would  always  conform  in  his 
teaching  and  in  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments  "  according 
to  the  rule  of  faith  as  laid  down  in  the  writings  of  the  Prophets 
and  Apostles,  the  sum  of  which  is  contained  in  the  Apostles', 
Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creeds,  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  of 
1530,  laid  before  Emperor  Charles  V,  in  the  Apology  of  the  same, 
in  Dr.  Luther's  Larger  and  Smaller  Catechism,  in  the  articles 
subscribed  to  in  the  Smalcald  Convention  and  in  the  Formula 
of  Concord,  wi'itten  1576  on  disputed  points  of  doctrine."  When 
at  the  first  synodical  meeting  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
John  Nicolaus  Kurtz  was  ordained,  and  the  confessional  require- 
ments of  subsequent  ordinations  was  similar  to  his,  he  not  only 
solemnly  promised  that  neither  publicly  nor  privately  he  would 
ever  teach  anything  except  what  was  in  accordance  with  the 
Word  of  God  and  the  Symbolical  Books  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church,  and  to  that  end  he  would  make  them  the  sub- 
ject of  his  diligent  study,  but  he  also  promised  that  in  the  public 
service  and  in  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments  he  would 
introduce  no  ceremonies  other  than  those  approved  by  the  Synod, 
neither  use  any  other  Agenda  but  the  one  sanctioned  by  them.^ 
At  the  same  convention,  in  a  letter  of  the  Ttdpehochen  Ciuirch, 
credit  is  given  to  Muhlenberg  and  his  associates  on  account  of 
their  steadfastness  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg 
Confession,  which  among  them  was  at  that  time  violently  at- 
tacked.^ At  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  Si.  MichaeVs 
Church,  in  1743,  it  was  publicly  declared  by  Muhlenberg  "that 
in  it  shall  be  taught  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  doctrines,  as  con- 
tained in  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  and  all  the  other 
Symbolical  Books."  ^  At  the  direction  of  Muhlenberg,  a  clause  was 
inserted  into  the  deed  of  the  church  at  Barren  Hill  to  the  effect 
that  the  Church  shall  be  forever  devoted  to  the  dissemination  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  "  according 
to  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession."  *  When,  in  1748,  in  con- 
nection with  the  organization  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
St.  MichaeVs  Church  in  Philadelphia  was  dedicated,  he  reminded 
the  congregation  of  the  fact  "  that  the  foundations  of  this  church 
1  Jubilee  Mem.,  21.      «  jb.,  22.      ^  Hall.  Nachr.,  288.      <  lb.,  864,  1182. 


68  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

were  laid  with  the  view  that  in  this  building  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  doctrines  as  laid  down  in  the  Prophets  and  Apostles, 
in  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  and  in  all  the  othtr  Sym- 
bolical Books  should  be  taught."  Such  declarations  were  made 
at  all  corner-stone  layings  and  church  dedications.  When,  in 
1762,  Muhlenberg  prejjai'ed  a  coiistitidion  for  St.  Michael's  Church 
in  Philadelphia,  he  inserted  a  clause  which  required  the  pastor 
to  strictly  adhere  in  all  his  teaching  to  the  Unaltered  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  this  constitution  has  served  as  a  model  for  many 
similar  documents.  In  view  of  what  has  since  occurred  in  the 
Church,  this  repeated  mention  and  emphasizing  of  the  C/?jaltered 
Augsburg  Confession  does  almost  seem  to  have  also  a  prophetic 
meaning,  for  nowhere  in  the  wide  world  has  the  changing  and 
amending  of  this  venerable  document  been  oftener  attempted  as 
in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 

The  Church  Service  and  Agenda  adopted  in  1748  by  the  Minis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  leadership  of  Muhlenberg, 
breathe  throughout  the  spirit  of  healthy  Lutheranism.  In  the 
formula  of  distribution  in  the  Lord's  Supper  Muhlenberg  and  his 
associates  use  language  in  such  strict  conformity  to  the  words  of 
the  Tenth  Article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  1530  and 
the  Smaller  Catechism  of  Luther,  as  is  not  even  found  in  the 
communion  service  arranged  by  Luther,  Bugenhageu  or  any  of 
the  strictest  Lutheran  theologians  of  the  Reformation  period.  It 
was  so  worded,  as  Muhlenberg  himself  says,  as  a  testimony  against 
some  malicious  persons  who  charged  him  and  his  colleagues  with 
lack  of  lidchty  to  the  Confessions  because  they  had  come  from 
Halle. 

And  we  find  more  than  a  sinjple  external  or  formal  adherence 
to  the  Confessions.  Muhlenberg  and  his  colleagues  faithfully 
and  conscientiously  conformed  their  2)ado7xil  mhiidrations  to  the 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Confes.-ions.  That  in  the  Holy  Sup- 
per all  communicants  partake  of  the  true  body  and  blood  of 
Chiist  they  firmly  believed.  Hence  their  great  care  in  the 
examination  of  the  persons  who  desired  to  come  to  the  Lord's 
Table.  Whenever  they  could  make  it  possible  they  spent  several 
days  in  having  the  persons  desiring  to  conimune  appear  before 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  69 

them  in  order  to  bold  a  private  and  searching  conversation  with 
thera.  No  more  conscientious  men  ever  graced  the  ministerial 
office  than  they.  How  zealous  they  were  in  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  church-schools,  in  which  the  children  for  a 
period  of  from  six  to  eight  years  were  taught  Bible  history, 
church  hymns,  catechism  and  Lutheran  doctrine!  And  one  ex- 
amining the  Pennsylvania  Synod's  Jubilee  Memorial  volume  will 
be  surprised  at  the  large  number  of  schools  maintained  in  the 
different  parishes,  even  after  Muhlenberg's  death.  Many  of  them 
report  as  high  as  six,  seven,  eight  and  nine  schools.  Dr.  Endress, 
of  Easton,  for  years  reports  eleven,  and  Pastor  Jaeger,  of  Hanover, 
even  twelve  schools.  No  less  careful  and  conscientious  do  we 
find  them  in  their  work  of  2^reparing  the  young  people  for  their 
first  communion.  Altar-felloivship  was  unhioxon  to  them.  The 
thought  of  admitting,  or  of  inviting  persons  to  the  Lord's  Table 
in  the  Lutheran  Church  who  were  not  Lutherans,  but  Zwinglians 
or  Calvinists,  would  not  only  have  been  repulsive  to  Father 
Muhlenberg  and  his  associates  in  the  Pennsylvania  Synod,  but 
would  have  filled  them  Avith  horror.  In  some  localities  the 
Lutherans  built  churches  jointly  with  the  Reformed,  both  being 
fellow-immigrants,  but  there  were  no  union  congregations,  and 
the  Reformed  did  not  commune  with  the  Lutherans,  nor  vice  versa. 
Muhlenberg  and  the  founders  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  did 
not  i:>ra.ctice  pulpit-fellowship.  And  if  there  be  any  ground  upon 
which  pulpit-fellowship  may  be  urged,  it  was  the  condition  of 
affairs  as  it  existed  then,  to  wit:  many  settlements  scattered  far 
and  wide,  and  few  ministers  of  the  gospel.  INIuhleuberg  never 
exchanged  pulpits  with  a  minister  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church,  although  by  history  and  circumstances  closely  connected, 
not  even  with  the  most  prominent  of  their  number,  the  founder 
of  the  German  Reformed  Church,  the  Rev.  Michael  Schlatter; 
and  this  is  the  more  noteworthy  from  the  fact,  that  Schlatter's 
wife  was  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  most  influential  families  in  St. 
Michael's  (^Muhlenberg's)  Church  in  Philadelphia  (Schlcydorn). 
No  church  would  permit  any  minister  to  preach  in  its  pulpit, 
even  if  he  claimed  to  be  a  Lutheran,  unless  first  examined  and 
recognized  as  a  Lutheran  minister  by  the  ]\Iinisterium  of  Penn- 


70  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

sylvania.  Muhlenberg  never  accepted  an  invitation  to  preach 
to  any  but  a  Lutheran  congregation,  except  in  two  instances,  the 
one  in  Bucks  County,  Pa., — if  that  may  be  called  an  excei)tion — 
where  CJerman  Lutherans  requested  liini  to  preach  to  them.  He 
held  service  in  a  Baptist  meeting-house,  and,  ui)on  request, 
explained  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  baptism.  Once  at  Provi- 
ence,  when  his  feeble  condition  ])revented  him  from  going  to  the 
more  distant  Lutheran  Church,  he  preached  in  the  nearby  Re- 
formed Church  (but  to  his  congregation).  Moreover,  some  point 
to  the  two  cases,  where  ministers  of  other  churches  preached  in 
the  church  of  which  jMuhlenberg  was  at  that  time  pastor.  Thus 
the  Rev.  Richard  Peters,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church, 
preached  one  Sunday  afternoon  in  1760,  in  Muhlenberg's  church 
at  New  Providence.  The  circumstances  were,  however,  peculiar. 
There  were  a  number  of  settlers  from  Connecticut  at  the  Trappe, 
and  Muhlenberg,  after  holding  services  for  his  congregation  in  the 
morning,  gave  these  English  settlers  an  o{)poriunity  of  hearing 
Mr.  Peters.  The  preaching  of  Whitefield  in  Zion's  Church  in 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  cannot  properly  be  claimed  as  an  instance  of 
opening  a  Lutheran  pulpit  to  a  Methodist.  The  fact  is  that 
Zion's  Church  was  not  only  the  largest  edifice  of  its  kind  in 
Philadelphia,  but  for  some  years  in  the  country,  and  that  because 
of  its  size  it  was  selected  for  notable  gatherings.  When,  there- 
fore, Whitefield  paid  his  last  visit  to  Philadelphia,  it  was  sug- 
gested that  Zion's  Church  should  be  opened  to  him.  By  far  the 
greater  number  of  the  thousands  of  attendants  were  English- 
speaking  peoj)le.  Preaching  to  the  Independents,  in  Charleston, 
6.  C,  in  1774,  admits  of  a  similar  explanation  as  Muhlenberg's 
preaching  in  the  Baptist  meeting-house  in  Bucks  County,  Pa. 
Some  would  call  these  exceptions  or  inconsistencies,  but  if  they 
are  such,  they  are  exceptions  that  confirm  and  strengthen  the 
rule,  and  if  they  seem  inconsistencies,  taking  all  the  circumstances 
into  consideration,  they  are  such  as  to  prove  a  higher  consistency. 
It  is  said  that  Muhlenberg  favored  prayer-meetings.  Muhlen- 
berg did  not  commence  them  where  he  did  not  find  them  in  his 
churches,  though  he  urged  his  people  to  have  family  worship ; 
but  where  prayer-meetings  existed  he  endeavored  to  keep  control 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  71 

of  them,  lest  they  should  degenerate  into  the  noisy  Methodistic 
meetings  that  were  over-running  the  country  like  a  prairie  fire. 
The  meetings  in  vogue  in  some  of  Muhlenberg's  districts  were 
not  the  strange  wild-fire  meetings,  but  they  were  of  the  character 
of  the  so-called  pietistic  conventicles  of  Spener  and  Francke,  at 
which  the  German  chorals  were  sung  and  passages  of  Scripture 
discussed,  though  in  a  more  informal  manner  than  at  church 
service. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  Muhlenberg  was,  in  1761,  charged  with 
heterodoxy  and  infidelity  to  the  Confessions  by  an  ingrate  named 
Kaus,  whose  ocean  passage  Muhlenberg  had  paid  twelve  years 
before,  thus  saving  the  young  man  from  being  sold  for  his  pas- 
sage-money. In  answer  to  this  charge  Muhlenberg  says:  "I 
have  stated  repeatedly,  both  orally  and  in  writing,  that  in  our 
evangelical  system  of  doctrine,  as  it  is  found  in  our  Symbolical 
Books,  I  discover  no  error,  blemish  or  defect.  I  herewith  chal- 
lenge Satan  and  all  his  servile,  lying  spirits  to  prove  aught 
against  me  where  I  have  taught  contrary  to  our  Symbolical 
Books." 

And  now  a  few  remarks  on  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  Neio 
York  Ministerium,  founded  in  1773  by  the  Rev.  Fred.  Aug.  Chr. 
Muhlenberg,  subsequently  speaker  of  the  first  and  third  Con- 
gresses. 

The  Constitution  upon  which  the  New  York  Ministerium  was 
founded,  and  which  was  in  force  until  1794,  was  the  Ministerial 
Ordnung  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod.  Chapter  V.,  Section  22,  of 
this  Constitution  required  every  candidate  and  pastor  to  "  preach 
the  Word  of  God  in  accordance  with  our  Symbolical  Books,"  and 
Chapter  VI.,  Section  2,  provided  for  disciplinary  measures  against 
any  one  "teaching  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  and  our  Symbol- 
ical Books  of  faith." 

In  the  second  place,  a  "  Reverse  "  was  required  of  every  min- 
ister who  did  not  come  from  the  Pennsylvania  Ministerium,  and 
of  every  candidate  ordained. 

On  April  26,  1795,  Georg  Joseph  Wichtermann  is  ordained  at 
Albany  by  Dr.  Kunze,  assisted  by  the  Rev.  A.  Braun,  as  pastor 
of  the  churches  at  East  Camp  and  Tarbush.     Before  his  ordina- 


72  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

tiou  there  was  read  to  him,  and  signed  by  him  in  the  presence  of 
the  congregation,  a  "Reverse,"  in  Avhich  this  passage  occurs: 
"By  these  presents  do  I,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  promise 
before  God  and  my  Chief  Shepherd  Jesus  Christ,  that,  as  long 
as  mine  eyes  shall  remain  open,  and  as  long  as  I  shall  discharge 
the  duties  of  an  Evangelical  minister  in  America,  I  shall  adhere 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God,  as  explained  in  the  Unal- 
tered Augsburg  Confession,  and  subject  myself  to  the  discipline 
of  the  reverend  brethren  in  this  State." 

George  Strebeck  came  of  a  Lutheran  family.  He  had,  how- 
ever, joined  the  IMcthodists,  and  had  occasionally  preached  in 
that  denomination,  but  earnestly  desired  to  return  to  the  Lutheran 
Church.  Dr.  Kunze  instructed  him,  and  in  1794  he  received 
license. 

In  the  presence  of  the  Ministeriura  the  Reverse  is  read  to  him, 
which  he  signs.  In  the  evening  at  public  service  in  Christ 
Church,  New  York,  the  Reverse  is  read  to  him  a  second  time ; 
he  again  assents  to  it,  and  is  thereupon  licensed.  In  1796  Strebeck 
is  examined  at  Rhinebeck,  and  publicly  ordained  on  Sunday, 
Sept.  25th.  For  the  third  time  the  "  Reverse "  is  read  to  him, 
which  he  again  signs.  In  it  Strebeck  declares  "before  God,  my 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  and  the  entire  congregation  present," 
that  "only  so  long  will  I  discharge  the  duties  of  the  ministerial 
office  in  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  as  my  brethren,  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium,  find  me  in  doctrine  and  life 
in  agreement  with  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Symbolical  Books 
of  our  Church."     Others  sign  similar  statements. 

And  not  only  were  these  "Reverses"  required  of  ministers ;  they 
were  also  given  by  congregations.  1799  the  Church  at  West 
Camp  was  received  into  Synodical  connection.  The  Ministerium 
met  at  E:ist  Camp.  The  four  representatives  of  the  Wes-t  Camp 
Church  subscribed  to  a  document  in  which  they  declared  "that 
they  will  at  all  times  submit  to  the  action  of  the  Ministerium, 
admit  no  minister,  who  is  not  a  member  of  this  Ministerium,  into 
their  pulpit,"  etc.  June  9,  1800,  the  English  Lutheran  congre- 
gation in  New  York,  founded  three  years  before  by  Strebeck, 
asks  for  admission.     The   Ministerium  lavs  down  a  number  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  73 

conditions,  which  the  representative  of  the  church  signs  in  its 
behalf.  One  of  these  reads  :  "That  at  no  time  we  will  admit  any- 
Lutheran  minister  into  our  Church  who  is  not  a  member  of  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium." 

And  as  to  Altar- Fellowship,  the  practice  had  always  been  that 
such  members  of  the  congregation  as  desired  to  commune  gave 
notice  to  the  pastor  by  handing  in  their  names  on  the  day  pre- 
ceding the  communion.  These  names  the  pastor  then  examined 
in  the  presence  of  the  vestry  (where  every  name  could  be  passed 
upon)  and  read  all  the  accejited  names  at  preparatory  service, 
thus  altogether  precluding  an  invitation  to  members  of  other 
denominations.  But  aside  from  this  guarding  of  Lutheran  altars, 
there  is  a  resolution  of  the  New  York  Ministerium  not  only  dis- 
couraging any  Altar  Fellowship,  i.  e  ,  communing  of  members  of 
Lutheran  churches  at  altars  not  Lutheran,  but  even  authorizing 
discij)linary  measures  in  the  case  of  such  members.  In  1796  it 
was  resolved  at  Rhinebeck,  "  That  it  be  the  general  practice  of 
the  Evangelical  (Lutheran)  ministers  in  this  State  not  to  re- 
ceive again  a  person  who  has  communed  in  the  church  of  another 
faith  (denomination)  into  our  churches,  except  upon  the  solemn 
declaration  on  the  part  of  such  person  of  future  fidelity  or  con- 
stancy; and  that,  before  such  reception  has  taken  place,  persons 
standing  in  such  relation  are  not  to  be  recognized  as  members 
of  the  congregation."  Pulpit  or  Altar-Fellowship  with  Episco- 
palians, Dutch  Reformed,  Presbyterians,  or  with  any  of  the  nu- 
merous denominations  by  which  the  churches  of  the  New  York 
Ministerium  were  surrounded,  was  unknown. 

The  ^^  Formula  Jtiramenti,"  which  was  required  by  the  Con- 
sistory of  Wernigerode  of  those  it  ordained  and,  among  others,  of 
Dr.  Kunze,  reads:  "I  swear  unto  God  the  Omniscient  an  oath 
into  my  soul  that  by  the  grace  of  God  I  will  not  only  re- 
main for  myself  faithful  to  the  end  to  the  true  Lutheran  Church 
books,  to  wit:  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  of  Faith,  the 
Apology  for  the  same,  the  Smalcald  Articles,  the  two  Catechisms 
of  Luther,  the  contents  of  which  books  is  specially  summarized, 
briefly  restated  and  clearly  exhibited  in  the  special  Form  of 
Concord,  but  that  I  will  also  teach  and  preach  accordingly  in 


74  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  churches  entrusted  to  my  spiritual  care."     The  other  pastors 
had  giveu  similar  pledges  at  their  ordination. 

Tlie  character  of  the  churches  which  connected  themselves 
with  the  Ministerium  during  thy  early  period  of  its  history  was 
strictly  confessional. 

The  Dutch  churches  of  Hackeusack,  New  York,  Albany  and 
Loonenburg,  were  established  upon  the  constitution  given  to 
them  by  the  Consistory  of  Amsterdam  in  Holland.  This  consti- 
tution provides,  "  that  the  minister  shall  not  only  conform  in  all 
his  teachings,  both  public  and  private,  to  the  Word  of  God  as 
explained  in  the  (severally  mentioned)  Symbolical  Books  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  but  he  shall  likewise  avoid  all  new  jihrases, 
according  to  the  principle  that  he  who  changes  the  words  changes 
the  sense."  * 

One  often  quoted  resolution,  however,  calls  fur  an  explanation. 
In  1797  the  New  York  Ministerium  resolved  "  not  to  recognize 
a  newly  established  Lutheran  Church,  using  the  English  language 
only,  in  any  place  Avhere  such  Lutherans  may  partake  of  the 
services  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  because  of  the  intimate  con- 
nection between  the  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Lutheran,  the 
sameness  of  the  doctrine  and  the  great  similarity  of  the  disci- 
pline." This  resolution  cannot  be  justified  in  the  light  of  the 
strictly  Lutheran  position  the  Ministerium  held  for  ten  years 
longer  after  the  passage  of  this  resolution.  Still,  it  can  be 
explained. 

And  if  explained  in  the  light  of  exi.sting  circumstances  and  of 
the  statements  of  Dr.  Kunze  made  at  the  time,  it  w^ill  be  seen 
that  the  resolution  was  passed  under  a  misapprehension,  and 
under  the  influence  of  peculiar  local  conditions.  In  1797  Stre- 
beck,  who  had  been  Dr.  Kunze's  English  assistant,  organized  an 
English  Lutheran  Church.  Dr.  Kunze  was  greatly  displeased. 
He  was  not  opposed  to  English  preaching.  There  was  no  Luth- 
eran pastor  at  the  time  who  did  as  much  for  the  English  as  did 
Dr.  Kunze,  but  he  desired  his  congregation  to  remain  together 
and  not  separate  on  account  of  language.  He  severely  de- 
nounced Strebcck's  course.  Synod  met  six  weeks  later.  There 
1  Ch.  Rev.,  VI.  188  ff. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.       75 

that  resolutiou  was  passed.  Its  framers  seemed  to  think  that  it 
would  prevent  the  organization  of  any  more  separate  English 
Lutheran  Churches.  As  soon,  however,  as  Strebeck  had  gone 
over  to  the  Episcopal  Church  (1804)  the  resolution  was  re- 
scinded. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  Dr.  Kunze  endeavors  to  justify 
the  resolution.  In  tlie  preface  to  Mr.  L.  Van  Buskirk's  ser- 
mons, which  was  written  a  few  weeks  after  that  action  had  been 
taken,  Dr.  Kunze  seriously  maintains  that  there  is  no  essential 
difference  betAveen  the  two  churches  in  matters  of  doctrine,  and 
that  there  is  a  close  resemblance  in  other  respects.  Dr.  Kunze 
claims  that  the  head  of  the  Anglican  Church  is  the  Lutheran 
King  of  Hanover;  and  states  that,  before  George  I.  of  Hanover 
ascended  the  English  throne,  he  had  a  commission  appointed, 
consisting  of  representative  men  of  the  Lutheran  and  Anglican 
Churches,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  there  was  any 
difierence  in  doctrine  between  the  two  churches,  as  lie  would  not 
accept  a  crown  at  the  expense  of  his  Lutheran  faith  and  convic- 
tion. This  commission  reported  tliat  there  was  no  essential  dif- 
ference in  doctrine,  and  so  he  accepted  the  crown.  Prof.  Dr.  G. 
Fritschel  says  of  this  attempt  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Kunze  to  justify 
that  action :  "  It  is  clear  from  the  justification  of  this  exception, 
made  with  reference  to  the  Episcopal  Church  and  based  upon  an 
erroneous  conception  of  the  same,  that  the  principle  laid  down  in 
the  Galesburg  Rule  Avas  at  that  time  maintained  positively  and 
decidedly."^  So  much  is  certain,  that  also  during  the  seven 
years  of  the  existence  of  this  resolution  there  was  neither  pulpit 
nor  altar-fellowship  practiced  with  the  Episcopal  Church. 

II.  But  now  to  the  other  side.  The  deterioration  of  the  Church 
is  also  one  of  our  Common  Historic  Antecedents.  What  a  change 
within  a  few  years!  The  breaking  away  from  the  faith  of  the 
fathers  made  itself  first  felt  in  the  South.  The  South  had  no  man 
strong  enough  to  stem  the  tide  of  false  liberalism,  rationalism  and 
Socio ianisra  that  was  sweeping  everything  before  it.  The  author- 
ity of  Father  Muhlenberg  prevented  tlie  disciples  of  neology 
from  publicly  asserting  their  views  in  the  Pennsylvania  Synod. 
^  Kirchl.  Zeitsch.,  XIII,  54. 


76  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

But  he  had  scarcely  closed  his  eyes  when  radical  changes  were 
inaugurated.  In  New  York  the  influence  of  Dr.  Kunze  was  of 
a  like  character.  As  long  as  he  lived  the  New  York  Minis- 
terium  did  not  depart  from  the  confessional  standards  of  the 
founders  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country.  But  when  in 
1807  he  departed  this  life,  all  is  changed.  Never  was  a  change 
more  sudden  and  more  radical.  Rationalism  and  Socinianism 
which  had  for  so  long  a  time  been  under  constraint,  now  swept 
everything  before  it. 

In  1787  the  Corpus  Evangelicum  was  organized  in  South  Caro- 
lina. It  consisted  of  five  ministers  and  fifteen  churches,  and  was 
an  attempt  to  unite  the  Lutheran  and  German  Reformed  Churches. 
The  majority  in  every  congregation  was  to  determine,  if  the 
Lutheran  or  the  Reformed  Liturgy  and  Catechism  was  to  be 
used.  In  1794  a  conference  of  the  Lutheran  ministers  in  North 
Carolina  ordained  the  Rev.  Robert  Johnson  Miller,  a  licentiate  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  as  a  Lutheran  minister  with 
the  understanding  that  he  should  consider  himself  always  bound 
to  obey  the  rules,  ordinances  and  customs  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  America.  This  was  followed  by  a  fraternal 
union  between  the  Synod  of  North  Carolina  and  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Convention  of  the  same  State.  Thus,  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  South  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  Rev 
Gottlieb  Shober,  was  no  Lutheran,  but  all  his  lifetime  belonged  to 
the  Moravian  Church.^  He  merely  served  the  Lutheran  Church 
as  one  of  her  ministers.  In  1817  the  North  Carolina  Synod  ap- 
proved a  book,  familiarly  called  "  Luther,"  prepared  by  Rev. 
Shober,  in  which  a  union  with  the  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians, 
Methodists  or  Baptists  is  proposed,  as  among  all  these  there  is 
"nothing  of  importance  to  prevent  a  cordial  union;" '^  Not  less 
strange  is  the  enumeration  of  the  notorious  Liturgy  of  the  New 
York  Ministerium — prepared  under  rationalistic  influences — as  a 
Symbolical  Book  of  the  North  Carolina  Synod.'  In  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Synod  neology  first  showed  itself  in  an  unmistakable  man- 
ner in  the  adoption  of  a  neiv  comtitution  in  1792,  which  omitted 
the  two  references  to  the  Symbolical  Books  that  the  old  constitu- 
1  Beruheim,  -ill.  ^  "  Luther,"  210.  »  "  Luther,"  172. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  77 

tiou  of  Muhlenberg   had  contained.     A  new  hymn  book  and 
liturgy  suited  to  the  vitiated  taste  of  the  times  was  published  and 
used  in  the  churches,  and  a  union  proposed  with  the  German 
Reformed   Church.      Still,  the   Poiinsylvauia  INIinif^tcrium   has 
remained  more  conservative  than  its  daughter,  the  Ministerium 
of  New  York.     Soon  after  Dr.  Kunze's  death  his  excellent  Eng- 
lish Hymn  Book  and  Catechism  are  supplanted  by  publications 
"  adai)ted  to  the  demands  of  the  rising  generation."     In  the  so- 
called  Liturgy  or  Agenda  the  efficacy  of  Baptism  is  denied ;  it  is 
simply  a  "sign  of  purification."     The  Lord's  Supper  is  no  more 
than  a  "  memorial  of  Christ's  death."     The  v/ords  of  distribution 
are  those  which  were  subsequently  inserted  into  the  Agenda  of 
the  United  Church  of  Prussia.     At  the  communion  service  the 
pastor  welcomed  all  to  this  "feast  of  love."     The  guards  which 
the  fathers  had  placed  about  the  altar  are  removed,  and  altar- 
fellowship  is  established.     There  is  no  longer  any  pledge  of  fidel- 
ity to  the  confessions  on  the  part  of  ministers  required.    Ministers 
of  all  denominations  are  admitted  to  the  pulpits,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Ministerium  are  at  liberty  to  preach  either  Lutheran, 
Calviuistic  or  Zwinglian  doctrines,  and  use  Methodistic  or  any 
other  measures  if  they  prefer  them.     Catechization  is  neglected. 
The  most  notorious  publication  of  that  era  was  Dr.  Quitman's 
Catechism.     In  it  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  omitted.     The 
death  of  Christ  is  referred  to  as  simply  a  vindication    of  his 
teaching.    Justifying  faith  is  "an  impressive  sense  of  the  glorious 
perfections  of  God,  and  a  corresponding  pious  disposition  arising 
from  it."     Faith  in  Christ  is:    "A  firm  belief  in   the  divine 
authority  of  Jesus,  and  of  his  doctrine  and  promises,  expressed  by 
a  sincere  zeal  to  cherish  Christian  sentiments  and  dispositions." 
On  page  48,  question  29,  of  Justification  and  Eternal  Life,  it  is 
stated,   that   "Justification   and    everlasting  salvation   are   the 
reward  that  God  has  graciously  promised  to  the  true  believers  of 
Christ."     It  is  further  taught,  that  there  is  salvation  without 
Christ,  and  that  there  are  heathen  in  heaven.     For  proof  he  cites 
Rom.  x:  14,  "How  then  shall  they  call  on  Him  in  whom  they 
have  not  believed,"  etc.     It  is  not  easy  to  understand,  how  a 
scholar  of  the  standing  of  Quitman  could  deliberately  print  a 


78  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

statement  like  this,  which  is  found  in  the  appendix  to  the  Cate- 
chism :  "The  frienda  of  Luther  ventured  even  in  his  lifetime  to 
differ  from  him  in  some  doctrinal  points,  and  as  the  great  Re- 
former was  silent  to  these  improvements  by  his  friends,  it  appears 
as  well  from  this  circumstance,  as  from  many  expressions  contained 
in  his  works,  which  were  published  by  him  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  that  he  approved  of  these  emendations."  Quitman  does 
not  seem  to  have  studied  the  life  of  Luther. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  entire  Church,  both  North  and  South,  with 
but  few  exceptions,  had  departed  from  the  standards  of  the  Re- 
formation. The  sentiment  of  the  advanced  leaders  of  the  so-called 
American  Lutheranism,  as  expressed  by  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker, 
was :  "  The  founders  of  the  General  Synod  were  men  of  enlarged, 
liberal,  and  scrii)tural  views  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  They 
regarded  it  as  the  grand  vocation  of  the  American  Church  to 
reconstruct  the  framework  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  assuming  a 
more  friendly  attitude  toward  sister  churches.  This  WJis  the 
enlightened  millennial  attitude  of  the  founders  of  the  General 
Synod.  In  the  Constitution  they  gave  it  power  to  form  new  con- 
fessions of  faith  and  new  catechisms  suited  to  the  progress  of 
biblical  light." ^  In  another  place  he  says:  "The  practice  of 
binding  the  conscience  of  ministers  and  members  to  extended 
creeds  ...  is,  and  must  be,  highly  criminal,"^  In  accordance 
with  these  sentiments,  the  Franckean  Spiod  had  published  a 
revision  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  in  which  the  original  docu- 
ment is  essentially  changed. 

Having  disposed  of  the  Symbolical  Books,  the  leaders  of  this 
latitudinarian  movement  felt  still  the  need  of  some  confession, 
and  they  determined  to  supi)ly  the  want.  But  they  went  about 
it  in  awkward  manner.  "  The  Definite  Platform,  Doctrinal  and 
Disciplinarian,  for  Evangelical  Lutheran  District  Synods,"  was, 
in  September,  1855,  sent  to  most  of  the  more  prominent  members 
of  the  General  Synod.  It  had  been  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Schmucker, 
after  consultation  with  the  radical  Dr.  Benjamin  Kurtz ;  but  the 
paniphlet  did  not  bear  the  imprint  of  the  author's  name.  Yet  it 
was  demanded  that  the  Synods  adopt,  without  further  examina- 
1  Luth.  Manual,  dedic.  ^  Evangel.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1850. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  79 

tion,  much  less  alteration,  every  article  it  contained,  and  swallow 
all  its  contents  in  one  gulp.  It  was,  moreover,  recommended 
that  the  Synods  should  require  every  minister  to  subscribe  his 
name  to  it,  and  if  he  refuse,  to  use  disciplinary  measures.  In 
this  platform,  Avhich  claimed  to  be  an  American  recension  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  the  Augsburg  Confession  is  charged  with 
five  distinct  errors,  and  of  the  twenty-eight  articles,  eight  are 
entirely  omitted  and  twelve  are  materially  changed. 

But  a  reaction  had  already  set  in.  This  Platform  opened  the 
eyes  of  many  more,  and  was  almost  universally  repudiated  by  the 
Synods  It  powerfully  strengthened  the  cause  of  conservative 
Lutheiauism  in  the  East. 

III.  "We  are  met  in  this  General  Conference /or  the  purpose  of 
reaching  a  bttter  underdandlng  and  Jorviing  a  closer  union.  This 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  confes- 
sions of  our  Church  on  the  part  of  all  who  are  here  represented, 
and  who  long  for  such  a  union.  AVe  are  aware  that  the  return  to 
the  confessions  and  the  cultivation  of  a  healthy  confessionalism 
among  us  will  not  remove  all  minor  differences,  which  are  the 
growth  of  time,  individuality,  education,  and  surroundings,  but 
it  certainly  will  bring  about  a  unity  in  the  faith,  a  unity  in  the 
spirit,  and  make  possible  a  hearty  cooperation  (Augsb.  Conf., 
Art.  VIIL). 

In  conclusion  we  beg  leave  to  submit  a  few  suggestions: 

1.  True  union  is  only  possible  upon  the  basis  of  the  Divine 
Word. 

2.  We  are  Lutherans  because  we  are  convinced  that  our  con- 
fessions depart  in  no  respect  from  the  teachings  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

3.  If  this  is  the  character  of  her  confessions,  it  is  the  duty  of 
all  her  ministers  and  churches  to  receive  these  confessions,  and  to 
receive  them  unreservedly.  If,  however,  these  confessions  are 
repudiated  or  attacked  in  whole  or  in  part  the  very  foundation 
upon  which  the  structure  rests  is  undermined,  and  a  united  Luth- 
eran Church  is  impossible. 

4.  The  Lutheran  Church  in  America  was,  without  exception, 
built  upon  this  foundation,  and  remained  faithful  to  it  for  fully 


80       PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

one  hundred  and  fifty  years.     In  consequence  there  was  union 
and  cooperation  over  the  entire  Church. 

5.  Departing  from  the  faith  of  the  fathers  and  the  entering  of 
distrust  and  disharmony  in  the  Church  were  related,  as  cause  and 
effect. 

6.  The  reaction  against  the  baneful  effects  of  neology  did  not 
result  in  mutual  understanding  and  harmony  ;  because  it  was  not 
a  return  to  the  confessions  of  the  Church,  but  an  introduction  of 
strange  measures  and  views  into  the  Lutheran  Church  which  dis- 
paraged her  doctrine,  especially  on  the  means  of  grace  and  the 
ministry. 

7.  During  the  past  fifty  years  the  Lutheran  bodies  represented 
in  this  General  Conference  have,  with  greater  or  less  energy  and 
success,  striven  to  overcome  the  spirit  of  Pelagianism  and  Syner- 
gism, which  has  been  dominant,  and  have  come  to  a  fuller  appre- 
ciation of  the  doctrines  of  the  Divine  Word  as  taught  in  the 
confessions,  with  the  happy  result  that  we  understand  each  other 
better  to-day  than  ever  before. 

8.  Only  upon  the  ba-:is  of  a  healthy  and  evangelical  confes.sion- 
alism  can  a  true  union  of  the  Lutheran  Church  be  attained  and 
maintained. 

REMARKS. 

Kev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas  said :— Is  it  correct  to  state  that  rationalism  is 
a  reaction  against  pietism  ?  The  general  history  of  pietism,  as  we  see 
it  in  Germany,  shows  that  rationalism  grew  out  of  pietism.  The 
immediate  followers  of  our  fathers  here  became  rationalists.  How 
then  did  pietism  take  a  different  course  here  ? 

Dr.  Horn  said :— The  fact  that  ]\Iuhlcnberg's  Liturgy  was  replaced 
in  1786  by  an  inferior  one,  indicated  that  Mr.  Haas  was  right. 

Kev.  D.  Earhart  said :— Did  I  understand  Dr.  Wolf  to  say  that 
Kev.  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth  forumlated  the  resohitions  two  yeai-s  before  they 
were  adopted  by  the  General  Synod  at  York,  Ta.,  in  1«64?  My  recol- 
lection is  that  they  were  originally  i)rcscnted  and  adopted  by  the  Pitts- 
burg Synod  in  1856  at  its  meeting  in  Zelienople,  Pa. 

Dr.  Spaeth,  in  answer  to  Rev.  D.  Earhart's  question  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  General  Synod's  confessional  basis  as  prepared  by  Dr. 
Krauth,  said  that  the  resolutions  of  the  Pittsburg  Synod,  prepared  by 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  81 

Dr.  Krauth,  were  against  the  Definite  Platform,  and  that  from  these 
the  basis  was  formulated. 

By  Dr.  Nicum  : — When  it  is  stated  that  the  Hymn  Book  and  Agenda 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  published  in  1780,  one  year  before  Muhlen- 
berg's death,  showed  deterioration,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Muhlenberg  was  at  that  time  feeble  in  body  and  had  lost  the  vigor  and 
strength  of  former  days.  And  though  a  member  of  the  committee 
which  edited  the  book,  he  was  no  longer  able  to  completely  repress  the 
spirit  which  was  beginning  to  manifest  itself  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Synod.  Still,  he  succeeded  in  giving  the  book  more  of  a  Lutheran 
character  than  otherwise  it  would  have  had. 

PRAYER:   ITS  DOCTRINE  AND  FORMS. 

BY   EDWARD  T.   HORN,   D.D. 

By  the  accident  of  printing,  the  subject  of  this  essay  has  been 
variously  stated.  I  was  asked  to  write  on  Prayer :  its  Doctrine  and 
Forms;  but  in  the  fii-.st  printed  program  of  the  Conference  I  saw 
my  subject  given.  The  Doctrine  and  Modes  of  Prayer;  and  this 
has  at  last  become,  The  Doctrines  and  Modes  of  Prayer.  The 
paper  had  been  prepared  before  the  printed  program  appeared. 
And  I  would  prefer  to  seek  and  state  the  essential  and  real  truth 
Avhich  underlies  the  fact  of  Prayer  under  all  its  forms,  rather 
than  to  criticise  the  theories  men  have  offered  in  explanation  of 
it  and  enumerate  the  many  modes  of  praying  men  have  used. 

Prayer  is  the  human  side  of  communion  between  man  and 
God.  This,  is  obvious,  and  may  seem  hardly  to  deserve  state- 
ment. But  it  is  meant  positively,  as  an  assertion  that  there  is 
communion  between  man  and  God ;  and  that  prayer  is  a  generic 
name  for  man's  part  in  it.  Prayer  is  sometimes  lauded  as  a  means 
of  virtue.  It  is  said  that  it  is  good  for  us  whether  we  obtain  the 
things  we  ask  for  or  not;  whether  it  is  heard  or  not;  whether 
there  is  a  God  to  wliom  it  is  addressed  or  not;  for  one  thus  pray- 
ing comes  to  a  recognition  of  his  desire,  and  it  is  set  in  proper 
relation  to  moral  and  unworldly  considerations,  etc.,  etc.  The 
old  hymn  says, 

"  Prayer  is  intended  to  convey 
The  blessings  God  designs  to  give." 
6 


82  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Here  it  is  defined  as  a  means  of  grace,  and  it  is  intimated,  I  sup- 
pose, that  it  may  become  such  by  being  a  means  of  self-discipline. 
But  these  definitions  are  inadequate.  It  is  the  direct  address  of 
the  spirit  of  man,  of  a  man,  to  the  Most  High. 

*'  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He 
is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  seek  after  Him."  (Heb.  11 :  6.) 
Prayer  rests  on  the  fact  of  God's  Being  and  Personality.  "  The 
eyes  of  the  Lord  are  upon  the  righteous,  and  His  ears  are  open  to 
their  cry.    They  cry  and  the  Lord  heareth."    (Ps.  103  :   15,  17.) 

There  could  be  no  communion  with  God,  if  God  did  not  first 
communicate  Himself  to  us.  Prayer  is  essentially  an  anstver. 
Hence  the  significance  of  God's  revelation  of  His  Name,  and  the 
injunction  not  to  take  in  vain  that  which  has  been  given  us  for 
prayer,  praise  and  thanksgiving.  (The  ancient  Egyptian  was 
warned  not  to  forget  the  name  of  his  god,  for  without  knowing  it 
he  could  not  enter  into  life.  So  we  could  not  pray  if  we  did  not 
know  whom  to  address,  and  by  what  Name  to  call  upon  Him.) 
None  pray  to  God  now  save  those  to  whom  He  has  in  some  wise 
and  at  some  time  come  in  His  word.  So  it  has  been  from  the 
beginning.  In  a  sense,  prayer  is  natural,  instinctive ;  but  it  is 
rather  an  outcry  of  pain,  of  grief,  until  we  hear  the  Voice,  to 
which  we  answer  with  a,  prayer.  Hence  the  old  custom  of  build- 
ing an  altar  wherever  God  revealed  Himself,  and  thinking  a 
special  worship  due  Him  in  connection  with  every  such  revelation. 
And  hence  the  wisdom  of  fastening  every  petition  on  a  word  of 
God,  and  expecting  an  answer  to  our  answer  to  His  invitation  or 
promise  or  revelation  of  grace. 

Are  the  "prayers  "of  the  heathen,  then,  no  prayers?  The 
ancient  heathen  offered  sacrifices,  and  began  every  undertaking 
with  sacred  formulas,  and  exhibited  many  marks  of  religiousness. 
But  in  classic  times,  as  well  as  now  in  heathendom,  and  among 
the  worldly  in  Christendom,  religious  worship  was  a  system  of 
mechanical  performances.  Nearly  all  their  rites  were  intended 
to  ward  off"  evil  Avhich  vaguely  imagined  unseen  powers  might 
do  The  purer  aim  and  faith  which  seem  to  have  underlain 
some  observances,  may  have  been  a  remnant  of  the  tradition  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  83 

prinicTval  revelation.  Tlie  Light  that  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world  sometimes  spoke  through  conscience  or  in 
His  providence  in  times  and  ways  other  than  those  in  which  He 
spake  to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets. 

Prayer  is  rendered  possible  tlirough  the  sin-offering  made  by 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Hence  He  calls  Himself  the  Door,  and 
bids  us  pray  in  His  name.  We  would  have  been  estranged  from 
God  and  under  His  wrath  but  for  the  Lamb  slain  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  but  now  we  are  from  the  beginning 
chosen  in  the  Beloved.  This  sacrifice  in  the  eternal  Spirit  made 
a  way-  of  access,  which  was  symbolized  and  explicated  by  the 
Old  Testament  sacrifices.  All  the  prayers  of  the  Old  Testament 
worship  were  based  on  Atonement  made  for  sin.  The  Sin-offer- 
ing was  the  basis  and  introduction  to  all  worship,  which  culmi- 
nated in  the  Peace-offerings,  in  whicli  the  worshipper  eat  and 
drank  with  God.  It  is  in  recognition  of  this  that  the  Psalmist 
and  we  say,  "  Let  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  be  as  the  evening 
sacrifice."  Therefore,  when  the  Church  approaches  its  Maker, 
it  is  with  confession  of  sin  and  absolution  by  the  gospel  of  Christ's 
Atoning  Death,  and,  therefore,  our  worship  finds  its  centre  and 
culmination  in  the  celebration  of  and  participation  in  our  Lord's 
death  for  the  remission  of  our  sins. 

All  prayer  is  offered  in  the  unity  of  the  Body  of  Christ.  As 
God  for  our  sake  treated  Him  as  the  one  only  sinner,  so  is  He 
the  one  only  Righteous  One.  We  come  in  His  Name,  in  His 
Name  only  can  we  come,  i.  e.,  covered  with  His  righteousness,  as 
if  we  were  He,  to  claim  those  things  that  are  His,  to  prove  that 
"all  things  are  ours,  and  we  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's." 
Apart  from  Christ  there  is  and  can  be  no  communion  with  God. 
We  see  God  in  the  Face  of  His  Son ;  we  do  not  know  Him  apart 
from  His  Word ;  and  in  His  Son  we  speak  to  Him. 

Prayer  takes  many  forms.  Wo  may  embrace  them  under  four 
designations,  suggested  by  St.  Paul.  Prayer  without  ceasing 
a  Thess.  5:  17);  The  Prayers,  i.  e.,  the  prayers  of  the  Church 
(Acts  2:  42);  My  Prayers,  i.  e.,  a  man's  own  habitual  prayers 
at  stated  times ;  and  calling  upon  God  in  every  time  of  need, 
occasional  prayer,  in  every  sense  of  that  word. 


84  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

St.  Puul  bade  the  Thessalonians  pray  without  ceasing.  He 
prayed  for  them  exceedingly,  night  and  day.  He  prayed  at  all 
seasons.  He  thanked  God  "without  ceasing.  By  this  lie  does  not 
mean  that  he  was  always  on  his  knees,  or,  always  abstaining  from 
every  other  employment,  was  occupied  with  supplication.  But 
he  would  have  us  always  conscious  of  the  immediate  presence  of 
God  aud  of  His  open  ear.  A  wish,  a  want,  a  longing,  was  no 
sooner  felt  and  recognized  than  it  was  offered  before  Him,  and  no 
good  thing  could  be  received  without  instant  acknowledgment. 
This  consciousness  and  communion  attended  every  action  and 
thought.     We  ought  to  call  upon  God  not  only 

"  When  in  the  hour  of  utmost  need, 
We  know  not  where  to  look  for  aid," 

but  in  all  our  necessities,  in  our  little  wants,  as  well  as  in  great 
perils,  always  conscious  of  our  helplessness,  yet  of  our  sufficiency  in 
God.  In  Him,  consciously,  and  by  the  act  of  our  will,  we  should 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 

It  is  said  that  those  early  converted  and  baptized  remained 
in  ihe  prayers.  That  is,  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  the  com- 
mon prayers  of  the  Body  of  Christ,  of  all  its  members  with 
and  for  one  another.  St.  Paul  bids  those  who  put  on  the 
whole  armor  of  God  to  watch  in  all  perseverance  and  sup- 
plication for  all  the  saints.  (Eph.  6:  18.)  In  the  familiar 
passage  in  1  Tim.  (2:  1,  2)  the  rubric  of  such  prayers  is 
given :  "  I  exhort,  therefore,  that,  first  of  all,  supplications, 
prayers,  intercessions  and  giving  of  thanks  be  made  for  all 
men."  In  the  earliest  worship  uf  the  Cliurch  the  ctlebration  of 
the  Holy  Supper  was  a  Eucharist,  a  thank-offering,  in  which  the 
Body  of  believers,  united  with  Christ  their  Head,  gave  God 
thanks  for  the  blessings  of  Creation,  and  offered  Bread  and 
Wine  as  symbols  of  the  things  He  had  made  and  given  to  them 
for  their  maintenance  and  well-being,  aud  offered  themselves  to 
God  as  those  that  had  been  bought  with  a  price.  Their  thought 
is  reflected  in  2  Cor.  8  :  5,  "  This  tliey  did  not  as  we  hoped,  but 
first  gave  their  own  selves  to  the  Lord,  and  unto  us  by  the  will 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  85 

of  God."  Their  tliauksgiving,  their  common  prayer  and  their 
ofTcring  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  the  spread  of  the  Gospel 
"Nvcrc  united  in  one  act ;  their  Eucharist  was  a  -/.oivovia,  a  com- 
munion ;  and  all  these  acts  of  communion  with  God  were  com- 
bined in  one  service. 

It  may  briefly  be  said  that  that  is  not  a  Christian  service  of 
worship  in  the  Church,  which,  without  any  consciousness  of  the 
unity  of  the  whole  body  of  believers  in  Christ  in  prayer,  and 
witliout  any  thought  of  the  varied  needs  of  all  believers,  and  of 
all  Christ's  wandering  sheep,  does  not  pray  for  all  estates  of  men. 

When  the  Church  prays  the  prayers  God  has  put  into  her 
heart,  she  is  at  one  with  her  Head,  who  in  the  Holy  of  Holies 
presents  her  intercession  as  His  own.  Jesus  and  all  of  us  pray 
one  prayer.  No  prayer  "in  His  Name"  is  presented  apart  from 
Him.  The  "intercession"  by  the  Spirit,  spoken  of  in  Rom. 
8  :  26,  -27,  is  not  apart  from  and  superadded  to  our  Lord's  inter- 
cession for  us,  spoken  of  in  verse  34.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  in  the 
world  m  the  Church,  through  the  means  of  grace  which  are  the 
nucleus  of  the  Church.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  not  apart  from  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God.  The  Spirit  in  the  Church  through  the 
Word  and  Sacraments,  stirs  the  hearts  of  God's  faithful  people 
to  mutual  love  and  fellowship  with  the  Lord,  and  to  common 
and  mutual  prayer;  so  that  at  the  same  time  each  is  praying  for 
all  in  union  with  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  each  is  sus- 
tained and  assured  by  the  prayers  of  all  in  the  unity  of  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

I  might  say  much  more  of  the  prayers  of  the  Church.  But 
only  a  few  remarks  are  necessary.  The  Litany  is  historically  and 
in  its  rationale  a  fair  representative  of  the  prayers  of  the  Church. 
The  participation  of  all  by  voice,  under  the  guidance  of  a  leader; 
the  foundation  of  petition  and  hope  upon  the  Godhead  and  work 
of  our  Saviour ;  the  summary  of  every  want  in  the  appeal  to 
God's  mercy  ;  all  these  are  in  every  sense  Christian.  So  the  Col- 
lects, which  are  such  wonderful  monuments  of  the  sincere  piety 
that  flowed  on  under  all  the  corruption  of  imperfect  and  dis- 
turbed ages,  are  prayers  suggested  by  and  answered  by  the  Word 


86  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

of  God  itself.  The  Verba  Testamentl  in  the  Holy  Cominuuion 
are  a  prayer  in  which  we  recite  to  our  Lord  His  words  of  com- 
mandnicnt  and  promise,  and  humbly  claim  their  fulfilment.  Our 
hymns  also  are  prayers.  Every  hymn  ought  to  be  a  prayer — an 
act  of  communion  with  God — and  not  an  address  to  our  fel- 
low-men. The  great  prayer  of  the  Church  is  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
In  it  we  approach  Him  of  whom  our  Lord  said :  3Iy  Father  and 
your  Father,  and  pray  for  the  relief  of  our  want  in  common  with 
all  our  fellow-men.  It  is  the  prayer  of  Christ,  in  the  only  shape 
in  which  it  can  be  said  by  those  to  whom  sin  clings. 

Philemon  and  I  Thess.  1 :  2  show  that  Paul  observed  a  habit  of 
prayer.  He  "said  his  prayers."  He  speaks  of  my  prayers,  every 
])rayer  of  mine  for  you,  our  j^rayers,  and  he  prayed  for  his  friends 
and  converts  by  name.  The  Apostles  of  our  Lord  went  up  into 
the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer.  Our  Lord  Jesus  was  wont  to 
go  apart  to  pray.  And  He  has  suffered  us  to  know  somewhat  of 
the  manner  of  His  prayers.  "I  know  that  Thou  hearest  me 
always,"  He  said.  In  the  garden  He  said :  If  it  be  possible ; 
nevertheless,  not  my  will,  but  Thine.  He  repeated  it ;  He  strug- 
gled; He  agonized.  He  prayed  for  His  disciples  by  name:  I 
have  prayed  for  thee,  He  said  to  Peter,  singling  him  out  as  fitted, 
after  His  prayer  for  him  had  been  answered,  to  strengthen  his 
brethren. 

Our  Lord  used  the  Book  of  Psalms  as  a  ]>rayer-book.  When 
He  hung  upon  the  cross,  in  the  intensest  hour  of  His  life  that 
wrung  out  its  completest  cry,  His  prayers  were  in  the  words  of 
the  Psalter.  No  doubt  His  soul  was  nourished  by  the  same  words 
of  God,  upon  which  His  prayer  was  founded.  It  is  apart  from 
my  object  to  deduce  lessons;  rather  would  I  state  priucii)les;  but 
may  we  not  say  that,  as  the  Christian  must  never  pray  for  him- 
self exclusively,  but  always  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Body  of 
Christ,  so  neither  dare  he  be  satisfied  with  a  mere  prayerful  at- 
mosphere (as,  for  instance,  in  the  well-known  story  of  Bengel, 
who  is  said  to  have  gone  to  bed  saying  simply :  "  Lord,  Thou 
knowest  Thou  and  I  are  on  the  same  old  terms  "),  but  should  say 
his  prayers,  in  them  cast  all  his  care  upon  the  Lord,  pray  for 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  87 

Others  by  name,  make  supplication  with  thanksgiving ;  and  that 
in  these  prayers  he  may  find  great  assistance  in  books  of  devotion 
and  forms  of  prayer,  above  all  in  the  example  of  our  Lord,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Lord's  prayers,  and  the  Psalter? 

It  should  be  remembered  that  a  Christian  man's  own  prayers 
are  in  a  true  sense  prayers  of  the  Church ;  they  are  the  thanks- 
givings, petitions  and  supplications  which  he  addresses  to  our 
heavenly  Father  in  his  particular  vocation  and  ministry  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  A  Christian  prayer  cannot  be  selfish,  exclu- 
sive, forgetful  of  those  God  has  given  to  us.  A  pastor,  a  parent, 
a  ruler,  for  instance,  in  his  closet,  comes  before  God  with  the  bur- 
den of  his  office,  and  prays  for  those  God  has  given  him.  His 
prayers,  therefore,  belong  to  the  organism  of  the  prayers  of  the 
Church. 

There  is  another  form  of  prayer :  we  are  hidden  call  upon  God 
in  every  time  of  need.  This  refers  to  earthly,  bodily  need,  but 
also  to  "all  troubles  and  necessities  whensoever  they  oppress  us." 
Our  Lord  here  also  set  us  an  example.  It  was  His  custom  to  go 
apart  to  pray  before  every  especial  act  of  His  ministry.  He 
prayed  before  the  choice  of  the  Twelve.  He  prayed  at  the  close 
of  His  Galilean  Ministry,  upon  the  verge  of  conflict.  He  prayed 
when  the  Cup  was  at  length  to  be  drunk.  So  Paul  says  to 
Timothy  that  "every  creature  of  God  is  to  be  received  with 
thanksgiving ;  fur  it  is  sanctified  by  the  Word  of  God  and 
prayer."  The  Christian  lives  by  the  strength  of  the  Son  of  God 
always,  and  always  asks  for  and  receives  it ;  he  knows  God  hears 
him  always,  and  he  calls  upon  Him  for  guidance,  deliverance, 
and  a  happy  issue  to  all  his  undertakings  ;  and  in  life  in  every 
crisis,  as  well  as  at  the  hour  of  death,  into  His  hands  he  com- 
mends his  spirit. 

REMARKS. 

By  Dr.  Nicum:  It  is  a  most  perplexing  subject,  and  I  refer  to  it 
in  this  Conference  for  the  purpose  of  calling  attention  to  it,  to  wit: 
The  prayers  of  the  lodges ;  how  are  they  to  be  considered  ?  Prayer 
in  the  name  of  Christ  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  and  aim  of 
the  lodge.  As  the  lodge  is  the  great  new  temple  into  which  shall  be 
gathered  all  the  nations,  and  as  prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus  is  offen- 


88  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

sive  to  a  Jew,  a  MoLammedau  and  a  Iliudoo,  it  can  not  be  tolerated. 
If  found  in  some  inferior  lodges  it  is  out  of  place  there,  and  has 
always  been  so  declared  by  the  supreme  Lodge  upon  appeal.  The 
presence  of  some  of  our  church  members  in  the  lodge  room  and  their 
actual  participation  in  these  pagan  services  is  a  difficult  problem  to 
deal  with,  owing  chiefly  to  the  prejudice  which  the  money  interest  in 
the  lodge  creates.  Still,  it  is  our  duty  to  study  the  matter  in  the  fear 
of  God,  and  in  the  light  of  the  Word  of  God  arrive  at  a  conviction. 

Dr.  Bauslin  :  Those  prayers  are  not  Christian  prayers.  There  is 
a  greater  adherence  to  Evangelical  prayer  in  the  Lutheran  Church 
than  in  any  other  denomination.  We  noted  a  perA'ersion  of  prayer 
where  a  minister  at  a  political  convention  went  over  the  entire  history 
of  the  achievements  of  a  i)olitical  party,  as  his  prayer,  which  was 
applauded  by  the  convention  and  noted  in  the  daily  press  as  an  elo- 
quent prayer.  The  forms  of  prayer  in  our  common  service  have 
saved  us  from  such  perversion. 

Dr.  Wolf  said  that  he  often  felt  that  prayer  was  a  supreme 
impertinence.  He  was  confident  that  many  who  lead  in  public 
prayer  have  no  idea  of  what  they  are  doing,  of  the  awful  import 
of  their  action.  What  warrant  has  a  creature  like  man  to  address 
the  eternal  throne,  to  ask  for  the  notice,  the  attention,  the  audi- 
ence of  the  Majesty  on  high,  to  whom  worlds  are  but  as  the  dust 
in  the  balance?  We  must  ever  shrink  from  approaching  the  God- 
head, had  not  He  in  infinite  condescension  come  down  into  the 
sphere  of  the  creature  and  commanded  us  to  enter  into  communion 
with  Him,  and  in  our  helplessness  direct  our  cry  to  His  matchless 
grace. 

He  maintained  also  that  undue  stress  was  laid  on  the  oral  expres- 
sion of  prayer.  Our  words  are  nothing  to  God,  who  knows  our  heart's 
desire  and  our  actual  need.  An  inarticulate  sigh,  a  look,  a  yearning 
appeals  to  our  Heavenly  Father. 

"  Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire 
Unuttered  or  expressed." 

He  instanced  a  pious  lady  who  is  in  feeble  health,  and  who  by  taking 
a  drive  on  a  recent  pleasant  afternoon  and  eating  a  light  supper,  had 
about  used  up  the  full  measure  of  her  limited  strength.  Then  she 
felt  the  need  of  "Saying  her  prayers,"  and  this  effort  proved  too 
much  for  her  exhausted  condition  and  resulted  in  complete  prostra- 
tion, from  which  it  required  weeks  to  recover.     It  would  be  a  serious 


PKOCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  89 

reflection  on  our  religion  to  claim  that  in  such  a  case  prayers  must 
be  articulated,  expressed  in  forms  of  human  speech. 

In  answer  to  Dr.  Nicum's  remarks  about  the  Christless  prayers  of 
the  lodges,  I  think  it  should  be  said  that  they  are  not  distinctively 
Christian  prayers  at  all,  but  so  framed  as  not  to  antagonize  the  views 
of  Jews  and  pagans.  I  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  thoroughly 
sound  and  evangelical  interpretation  of  prayer  given  in  Dr.  Horn's 
admirable  paper,  and  I  am  disposed  to  feel  that  in  the  use  of  this 
important  part  of  worship  there  is  more  conformity  to  these  princi- 
ples in  the  prayers  heard  in  Lutheran  churches  than  anywhere  else 
in  Christendom.  There  are  so  many  lamentable  paroxysms  of  prayer 
in  our  generation  that  it  is  refreshing  to  have  our  minds  and  hearts 
brought  back  to  such  sound  principles  as  those  enumerated  in  the 
paper  just  read.  Let  me  give  an  example.  Out  in  our  State  some 
months  ago  a  political  convention  in  one  of  our  cities  was  opened 
with  prayer  by  a  minister  selected  for  that  purpose.  In  what  he  pre- 
sented as  a  prayer  the  history  of  the  party  in  the  interest  of  which 
the  convention  was  met,  was  said  to  have  been  given  in  more  or  less 
detail  from  Abraham  Lincoln  to  William  McKinley.  Manifestly 
such  business  is  a  perversion  and  a  reversal  of  the  divine  order. 

But  I  believe  that  there  are  indications  of  improvement.  The 
large  number  of  prayer  books  for  use  in  family  worship  now  being 
issued  would  seem  to  indicate  a  revival  of  interest  on  this  subject. 
Within  the  past  year  or  two  one  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  issued  two  such  books.  Another  is  published  by  Eev- 
Dr.  Miller  of  this  city,  and  editor  of  the  Presbyterian  Sunday- 
school  Helps.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  has  edited  one  such  book,  in 
which  he  has  used  several  prayers  of  the  venerable  preacher  who 
preached  to  us  so  admirably  this  morning.  Eev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  of 
London,  has  another,  and  there  are  many  others.  These  books,  of 
course,  are  not  published  for  fun,  but  to  sell.  They  are  put  in  print 
because  there  is  a  demand  for  them,  we  may  be  sure.  Their  appear- 
ance would  seem  to  indicate  a  revived  interest  on  the  subject  to 
which  they  all  pertain. 

Dr.  Krotel  :  As  representatives  of  three  General  Bodies,  it  is  a 
matter  of  gratification  that  we  have  made  progress  in  this  direction, 
in  saying  our  prayers,  if  you  wish.  Formerly  it  was  an  oflf'ence  to 
read  a  prayer  out  of  a  book,  and  yet  these  very  people  sang  hymns, 
which  were  prayers,  out  of  a  book.  That  was  praying  in  verse ;  I 
prefer  to  pray  in  prose.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  in  prose.  People  have 
learned  that  they  can  pray  those  beautiful  prayers  which  have  come 


90  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

dowu  through  the  centuries  with  heart  and  soul,  and  unite  in  one 
common  service.  Dr.  Buckley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Christian 
Advocate,  said  that  of  all  forms  of  service  ours  is  the  most  Scriptural 
and  that  besides  we  maintain  the  right  and  practice  of  free  prayers. 

Dr.  Luther  E.  Albert  said:  Whilst  I  frequently  emjiloy  set 
prayei's,  I  also  use  free  prayers.  He  instanced  the  case  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  sending  for  a  rector  and  asking  that  he  lay  aside  the  book 
of  prayer  and  pray  for  him. 

Dr.  Spaeth  :  I  also  use  free  prayers,  but  I  do  not  have  the  right  to 
thrust  aside  the  prayers  of  the  Church  and  insert  my  own  individual 
prayers  into  the  public  worship  of  the  Church.  The  sermon  is  the 
place  for  individual  presentations,  and  there,  and  not  in  the  general 
prayer,  is  the  place  for  my  individual  petitions. 

Rev.  Prof.  J.  Fry,  D.D.,  said :  While  the  paper  read  did  not 
touch  the  matter  of  posture  in  prayer,  the  matter  is  worthy  of  our 
attention.  It  is  to  be  regretted  the  custom  of  our  fathers  to  rise  up 
and  stand  during  prayer  in  the  public  services  on  the  Lord's  day  is 
being  changed  in  some  churches  to  kneeling,  or  more  generally  to 
remain  sitting  and  simply  bowing  the  head.  It  may  seem  a  small 
matter,  but  there  is  a  confessional  principle  involved  in  it.  The  early 
Christians  stood  during  prayers  on  the  Lord's  day  because  it  was  the 
day  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  and  at  the  Reformation  this  principle 
was  recognized,  and  the  posture  of  rising  up  and  standing  before  the 
Lord  was  re-established,  and  it  should  be  maintained  and  perpetuated 
as  a  matter  of  principle  as  well  as  of  custom  in  Lutheran  congrega- 
tions. 

Dr.  Horn  said  that  the  brevity  of  his  essay  had  not  permitted 
reference  to  many  subjects  connected  with  Prayer.  He  asked  whether 
it  was  not  inconsistent  with  the  sacredness,  the  reality,  of  prayer,  to 
ask  ministers  to  go  through  a  mere  form  of  prayer,  which  is  not 
intended  to  be  anything  more  than  a  form,  at  political  conventions 
and  literary  performances.  The  decay  of  the  custom  of  family  prayer 
was  adverted  to.  Loehe's  Samenkoerner  des  Gebtts  was  mentioned  as 
a  model  of  right  prayers,  in  contrast  with  many  books  which  cover 
unbelief  under  beautiful  language. 

William  H.  Staake,  Esq.,  said:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  know  if 
it  is  in  order  for  me  to  speak  in  this  Honorable  Body,  but,  if  I  am  in 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE,  91 

order,  I  would  like  to  crave  your  attention  for  a  moment  to  a  subject 
which,  to  my  mind,  deserves  the  serious  attention  of  every  Christian 
minister,  and  every  Christian  layman,  namely,  the  subject  of  greater 
regard  for  the  name  of  Almighty.  God,  in  the  administration  of  judi- 
cial oaths,  as  well  as  in  the  appeal  to  Him  for  the  protection  of  the 
Court  and  Commonwealth,  in  the  opening  of  courts  of  justice. 

I  regard  every  oath  as  an  appeal  to  Almighty  God,  upon  the  part 
of  the  person  taking  the  oath,  asking  him  to  witness  the  truth  of  the 
statement  the  person  is  about  to  make,  or  the  evidence  he  is  about  to 
give,  and,  being  an  appeal  to  Almighty  God,  such  appeal  is,  in  effect, 
a  prayer,  and  should  be  made  with  due  and  proper  reverence. 

I  regret  to  say,  that  in  actual  practice,  especially  before  our  minor 
judicial  tribunals,  but  little  respect,  so  far  as  reverence  is  concerned, 
is  paid  in  the  use  of  the  Holy  Name  of  God,  in  connection  with  the 
usual  language  of  an  oath. 

Many  of  the  officers  of  our  Courts  observe  but  little  ceremony,  and 
usually  no  reverence,  when  they  administer  the  oath,  either  to  wit- 
nesses, to  members  of  the  legal  profession,  or  to  officers  who,  in  the 
usual  transaction  of  the  business  of  courts,  may  be  called  upon  to 
assume  an  obligation,  or  give  testimony. 

During  the  past  thirty  years  I  can  only  remember  one  official  of  the 
Court,— a  dear,  gentle  old  man,— who,  in  his  manner  of  administering 
an  oath,  gave  constant  testimony  to  his  personal  appreciation  of  the 
solemn  act  which  was  being  performed  by  him.  He  would  insist  upon 
all  persons  in  the  Court  room  being  seated  ;  he  would  command  a  per- 
fect silence,  and  then,  with  clear  and  distinct  enunciation,  in  a  most 
solemn  and  impressive  manner,  he  would  repeat  the  words  of  the  oath 
which  the  person  was  about  to  take,  and  when  he  would  come  to  the 
concluding  portion,  in  which  the  name  of  Almighty  God  was  used, 
he  would  raise  his  eyes,  as  if  in  prayer,  towards  Heaven,  and  repeat 
the  great  name  of  his  Maker.  This  good  old  man,— who  was  univer- 
sally respected  by  the  members  of  my  profession, — has  been  called  to 
his  reward.  I  wish  that  his  example  would  be  followed  by  all  other 
officials  in  the  Commonwealth  occupying  a  similar  position.  I  regret 
to  say,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  in  these  practical  days  of  ours,  some  of 
our  courts  have  deemed  it  unnecessary  to  follow  the  tradition  and 
custom  of  years,  in  the  daily  opening  of  the  Court,  by  appealing  to 
God  to  protect  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Honorable  Court,  but 
have  substituted,  in  the  place  thereof,  a  simple  striking  of  the  gavel, 
followed  by  the  words:  "In  the  name  of  the  CommonwL'ulth,  this 


92       PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Court  stands  open  for  business,"  followed  by  a  few  more  raps  of  the 
gavel,  and  then  the  Court  is  considered  open.  I  am  happy  to  say, 
however,  that  the  majority  of  our  Courts  still  do  appeal  to  God  to  pre- 
serve the  Commonwealth  and  the  Honorable  Court,  but  the  manner  of 
the  appeal  might  be  made  much  more  dignified,  formal  and  reveren- 
tial. In  fact,  so  little  attention  is  often  paid  to  the  use  of  a  serious 
and  reverential  manner  in  the  administration  of  an  oath,  that  it  has 
come  to  be  a  by-word,  that  the  fee  for  the  administration  of  the  oath 
is  often  uttered  in  the  same  breath  with  the  name  of  the  great  Jeho- 
vah, so  that  the  uninitiated  might  think  it  was  a  necessary  part  of  the 
language  of  the  oath.  The  most  solemn  form  of  oath  is  that  by  the 
uplifted  hand,  in  which  the  language  is : 

"  I  do  solemnly  swear,  by  Almighty  God,  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts, 
that  the  evidence  I  am  about  to  give  is  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth,  and  so  I  shall  answer  to  God  at  the  Great  Day." 

The  more  usual  form,  however,  is  that  of  placing  the  hand  upon  the 
Bible,  and  simply  saying  "  that  the  evidence  (or  the  statement)  is  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  so  help  me  God." 

The  effect  of  this  careless  administration  of  oaths  is  apparent  in  the 
frequent  cases  of  perjury.  I  know  that  some  people  say  that  a  man 
who  will  tell  a  lie  will  perjure  himself.  I  do  not  agree  to  the  correct- 
ness of  such  a  statement.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  there  are 
many  who  might  be  guilty  of  falsehood,  under  some  circumstances, 
who  would  hesitate  to  repeat  the  falsehood,  and  deliberately  call  upon 
Almighty  God  to  witness  the  truth  of  the  false  statement.  I  do  not 
know  what  is  the  cause, — whether  it  is  because  men  are  not  so  serious 
and  reflective  now  as  formerly,  or  whether  it  is  due  to  a  change  of 
sentiment  on  the  subject  of  conscientious  scruples  in  the  taking  of  an 
oath,  or  if  for  other  reasons,  but  this  I  know,  that  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  ago  you  could  go  into  any  of  our  local  courts  and  you  would 
find,  on  a  jury  being  impaneled  and  sworn,  that  on  an  average  three, 
four,  five,  or  often  more  of  the  jurors  would  demand  to  be  affirmed, 
instead  of  sworn,  while  now,  you  often  see — in  fact  it  is  the  usual 
rule  to  see — the  whole  jury  standing  up  and  being  sworn,  the  cases  of 
those  who  ask  to  be  affirmed  being  now  very  exceptional.  I  fear  the 
cause  of  this  is  simple  carelessness  upon  the  part  of  men  who  have 
not  taken  the  trouble  to  consider  the  subject  at  all.  I  do  not  believe 
it  is  due  to  an  increased  regard  for  the  oath,  and  a  decreased  inclina- 
tion to  take  an  affirmation  instead  of  a  judicial  oath,  but,  I  repeat,  I 
believe  it  is  due  to  indifference  or  to  a  simple  want  of  examination  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  93 

the  subject  upon  the  part  of  those  wlio  have  no  time  for  such  things 
in  this  busy,  pushing,  energetic,  driving  age  of  ours. 

Here  is  a  field  of  usefulness  for  the  Church.  Our  pastors  should 
impress  upon  their  people  that  an  oath  is  an  appeal  to  Almighty  God  ; 
that  such  an  appeal  is  a  prayer,  and  that,  in  the  taking  or  the  admin- 
istration of  an  oath,  there  should  be  the  same  solemnity,  the  same 
dignity,  the  same  reverence,  as  one  would  use  in  a  spoken  prayer. 

G.  G.  Burnett  :  Family  prayer  has  always  been  recognized  as  a 
desirable  and  necessary  part  of  the  Christian  life,  but  is  it  so  in 
reality?  In  several  years  of  traveling  among  our  churches  and 
congregations  all  over  our  land,  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  the 
writer  and  his  wife  to  be  entertained  in  many  homes  of  mission- 
aries and  pastors.  We  have  expected  to  enjoy  family  worship, 
and  in  not  a  single  instance  have  we  been  disappointed.  The 
reading  of  the  Bible  and  the  subsequent  prayer  have  been  re- 
garded as  necessary  as  the  morning  meal.  In  one  instance,  a  verse 
of  Scripture  would  be  read  by  the  head  of  the  family,  followed 
in  turn  by  each  member  in  succession  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 
Every  morning  the  prayer  would  be  made  by  each  member  of  the 
family  in  turn;  and  the  pleasure  of  hearing  the  mother  of  the  flock 
and  the  children  in  their  order  conduct  the  prayer  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, was  a  rare  treat,  and  an  innovation  recommended  to  all.  That 
mother  is  able  to  conduct  any  gathering  in  church  circles,  while  the 
children  are  being  educated  in  spheres  of  action  in  the  various  church 
organizations  into  Avhich  they  will  naturally  be  called. 

It  is  in  the  family  gatherings  of  the  laity  to  which  especial  atten- 
tion is  called.  We  have  been  entertained  in  very  many  of  these,  in 
the  South  and  through  the  North  from  the  Pacific  to  the  eastern 
shores,  and  our  conclusion,  based  on  years  of  experience,  is,  that  the 
family  service  ceases  with  the  morning  blessing  of  the  food.  Not  only 
is  this  true  of  Lutheran  households,  but  in  other  denominations. 
This  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  Christian  home  life.  At  this  moment 
I  do  not  recall  three  instances  among  the  laity  in  .which  a  full  family 
service  was  held.  Our  clergy  should,  indeed,  take  this  to  heart. 
That  our  pastors  are  anxious  that  their  people  should  perform  such 
duties  properly  and  reverently,  none  will  question ;  but  that  they  are 
remiss  in  penetrating  into  the  home  life,  and  ascertaining  how  these 
Christian  duties  and  obligations  are  performed,  is  a  fact. 

A  physician  is  the  custodian  of  the  physical  ailments  of  his  patients. 
Why  do  not  our  pastors  solicit  the  confidence  of  their  parishioners  in 


94  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

their  inner  home  life,  and  become  the  spiritual  physicians  and  advisers 
in  the  conduct  of  the  fomily  service?  Pulpit  oratory  and  advice  is 
excellent  and  timely,  but  of  too  general  a  character  to  strike  at  the 
root  of  the  home  delinquencies.  The  requirement  needed  is  personal 
work.  Individual  advice  and  encouragement  is  needful  and  necessary, 
and  pastors  should  feel  no  reluctance  in  tendering  both.  They  will 
find  such  services  warmly  appreciated  and  followed,  whereas  timidity 
and  fear  of  failure  prevent  the  commencement  of  such  service  with- 
out some  instruction.  Let  our  ministers  drop  in  at  the  morning  meal 
of  their  various  parishioners ;  they  will  surely  be  welcomed ;  let  them 
call  for  the  family  Bible,  and  conduct  service,  and  give  a  practical 
lesson  to  the  family  gathering,  requesting  its  daily  continuance,  and 
great  good  will  result  therefrom. 

Many  grains  of  truth  are  absorbed  by  ministers  in  conference,  and 
the  seed  thus  planted  will  produce  abundant  fruit.  The  statements 
herein  made  of  the  absence  of  the  family  altar  in  Christian  families 
will  shock  many  of  our  clergy,  but  unfortunately  it  is  the  truth. 
Ministers  in  their  pulpits  look  with  complacency  upon  their  work ; 
and  when  one  of  their  laymen  opens  a  window  to  reveal  the  light  from 
his  standpoint,  it  jars  disagreeably  upon  the  equanimity  of  the  former. 
It  opens  up  a  theme  for  thought  and  a  field  for  action  that  will  be  well 
for  our  clergy  to  heed;  and  if  the  matter  is  honestly  fathomed  and 
properly  treated,  the  blessings  of  God  will  rest  upon  the  eflbrts  of  our 
clergy  in  the  establishment  and  maintenance  in  their  respective  con- 
gregations of  the  family  altar  and  family  prayers. 

OUR  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

BY  PROF.  F.  V.  N.  PAINTER,  D.D. 

In  the  widest  sense,  the  subject  before  us  includes  all  the 
schools  through  which  the  Church  promotes  the  education  of  its 
youth.  It  might  fairly  lead  to  a  consideration  of  our  schools  of 
every  kind  and  every  grade  ;  and  in  each  case,  we  n)ight  find 
something  interesting  or  profitable  to  contemplate.  But  a  limit 
has  wisely  been  fixed  for  this  discussion  ;  and  hence,  for  the  sake 
of  fuller  treatment,  which  must  yet  be  condensed  and  brief,  this 
paper  is  restricted  to  a  consideration  of  our  colleges.  Other 
schools,  if  mentioned  at  all,  arc  mentioned  only  incidentally. 

From  the  beginning  the  I^itherau  Church  has  been  active  in 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  95 

the  work  of  education.  The  priuciples  underlying  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  contrast  with  those  of 
Roman  Catholicism,  naturally  and  inevitably  lead  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools  of  every  grade.  These  principles  may  be 
briefly  stated  as  follows  :  1.  The  Scriptures  are  the  only  infollible 
rule  of  faith  and  practice  in  religion  ;  2.  Men  are  justified  by 
faith  ah)ne ;  and  3.  All  believers  are  kings  and  priests  unto 
God.  These  principles,  first  proclaimed  by  Luther  and  his  co- 
adjutors, make  the  Lutheran  Reformation  the  mother  of  popular 
education,  and  the  friend  of  every  department  of  learning. 

The  relation  of  these  principles  to  education  should  be  clearly 
apprehended.  With  the  Scriptures  as  guide,  every  man  is  ele- 
vated to  the  freedom  and  dignity  of  ordering  his  own  religious 
life.  To  the  Protestant  Christian,  intelligence  thus  becomes  a 
primal  necessity.  By  its  fundamental  principles,  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  contracted  the  obligation  of  placing  every  man  in  a 
position,  through  a  study  of  the  Bible,  to  save  himself  and  lead  a 
Christian  life. 

The  operation  of  these  principles  is  seen  wherever  the  Lutheran 
Church  exists.  They  led  Luther  to  translate  the  Bible,  to  urge 
the  establishment  of  primary  and  secondary  schools,  and  to  labor 
for  the  improvement  of  the  universities.  They  have  made  Ger- 
many the  school-mistress  of  the  world.  In  every  region  where 
the  Lutheran  Church  has  been  transplanted,  we  see  an  interest 
in  education.  The  erection  of  a  house  of  worship  is  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  the  establishment  of  a  school.  During  the  last  century, 
the  great  pioneer  ministers  of  Pennsylvania  were  active  in  estab- 
lishing parocliial  schools ;  and  of  the  Salzburgers  it  is  recorded 
that  "no  sooner  did  they  take  possession  of  the  wilderness  than  a 
tabernacle  was  set  up  for  the  Lord.  This  was  speedily  followed 
by  provision  for  the  education  of  the  children." 

But  the  educational  work  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this 
country  does  not  show  the  prompt,  uninterrupted,  and  vigorous 
growth  that  naturally  springs  from  its  principles.  Various 
hindering  causes  intervened.  The  energies  of  our  people,  who 
were  loyal  to  the  cause  of  independence,  were  largely  absorbed 


96       PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

in  the  struggle  of  the  Americau  Revolution.  The  Deutsches 
Seminar  in  Philadelphia,  founded  by  Dr.  Kunze  in  1773  under 
promising  auspices,  was  broken  up  by  the  war.  The  princij)les  of 
deism  and  infidelity,  imported  from  England  and  Franco,  in  a 
measure  paralyzed  religious  activity.  But  most  potent  of  all 
these  hindering  influences  was  the  unfortunate  language  dissen- 
sion, which  prevented  the  German  and  English-speaking  elements 
of  our  Church  from  cordially  uniting  in  educational  work.  As 
a  result,  the  work  of  higher  education  has  been  belated  among 
us,  and  our  oldest  College  will  have  to  wait  many  years  yet 
before  celebrating  its  centennial. 

The  tide  of  German  immigration  had  set  in  strong  as  early  as 
the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Before  1750  the 
Lutheran  population  of  Pennsylvania  is  estimated  at  GO,OCO. 
Before  the  close  of  the  century  the  Lutheran  population  must 
have  been  considerably  more  than  100,000.  Yet  the  first  Col- 
lege of  the  Lutheran  Church — Pennsylvania  College  of  Gettys- 
burg— was  not  founded  until  1832.  Of  the  fifty  colleges,  includ- 
ing those  for  young  women,  credited  to  us  in  our  Year  Books, 
only  four  were  established  prior  to  1850.  Nearly  all  the  rest 
have  been  established  in  the  last  three  decades,  and  more  than 
twenty  since  1890.  Our  educational  energies,  long  held  back, 
seem  suddenly  to  have  burst  forth  like  Arctic  vegetation  after 
the  long  winter. 

This  phenomenal  activity  is  worth  a  moment's  consideration. 
It  is  evident  that  special  causes,  apart  from  the  general  principles 
of  the  Church  of  the  Reformation,  have  been  at  work.  During 
the  past  three  or  four  decades  there  has  been  extraordinary  edu- 
cational activity  in  our  country  at  large,  the  influence  of  which 
has  been  felt  in  various  parts  of  our  Church.  The  great  tide  of 
Lutheran  immigration  has  called  for  a  rapid  expunsion  of  our 
educational  facilities.  There  has  been  better  synodical  organiza- 
tion among  our  people,  securing  prompter  and  more  efficient 
action  than  was  possible  at  an  earlier  period.  But  apart  from  all 
these  influences,  diflLTences  of  language  and  of  synodical  relations 
have  especially  contributed  to  the  multiplication  of  colleges. 
Our  fifty  colleges  represent  four  or  five  different  languages  and 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  97 

some  tweiitj-five  different  Synods,  With  greater  unity  and  homo- 
geneousness,  it  is  evident  that  fewer  colleges  would  have  been 
established. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  America  has  special  reasons  for 
activity  in  education.  It  cannot  otherwise  meet  its  grave  responsi- 
bilities nor  maintain  a  vigorous  life.  Without  fostering  education, 
it  is  untrue  not  ouly  to  its  fundamental  principles,  but  al.<o  to  its 
history  and  traditions.  The  Lutheran  Church  was  born  in  a  uni- 
versity. It  feels  a  just  pride  in  its  old-world  institution?,  and  in 
its  accumulated  treasures  of  theology.  But  more  than  that ;  our 
Church  is  here  placed  in  an  atmosphere  of  intellectual  freedom, 
where  influence  and  progress  must  depend  ultimately  on  tlie  con- 
vincing power  of  the  truth.  To  be  without  culture  is  to  be  with- 
out power.  Without  strong  institutions  of  learning,  we  shall  fail 
to  make  a  deep  impression  on  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of 
our  country,  which,  as  may  be  easily  foreseen,  is  destined  to  play 
an  important  part  in  the  divine  drama  of  the  world. 

The  Lutheran  Church  has  a  well-defined  and  noble  educational 
ideal.  It  avoids  Puritanic  narrowness,  secular  incompleteness, 
and  Roman  Catholic  asceticism  and  subjection  to  authority.  It 
recognizes  the  validity  of  all  man's  faculties  as  divine  gifts,  and 
empliasizes  the  totality  of  life  as  a  divine  service.  While  laying 
stress  on  the  supreme  importance  of  moral  and  spiritual  culture, 
it  recognizes  the  claims  of  practical  life.  It  begins  with  the  con- 
secration of  baptism ;  and  then,  through  uninterrupted  training 
and  culture  from  childhood,  it  aims  at  such  a  development  of  the 
physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  powers  of  man,  as  will  realize  the 
highest  personal  worthiness,  and  at  the  sp.me  time  fit  him,  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  to  render  the  greatest  service  to  Church  and 
State.  Attaching  special  importance  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
element  of  education,  the  Church  cannot  give  its  unreserved 
endorsement  to  any  system  or  institution  in  which  this  element  of 
culture  is  neglected.  For  this  reason,  even  in  the  presence  of 
well-equipped  secular  institutions,  it  establishes  and  maintains  its 
own  colleges. 

All  our  colleges  make  provision  for  the  religious  culture  of  the 
student.     Apart  from  the  daily  exercises  in  chapel,  instruction  in 
7 


98  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  evidences  of  Christianity  is  frequently  given.  All  the  teach- 
ing is  suffused  ^vith  a  Christian  spirit,  the  field  of  knowledge  being 
surveyed  from  the  standpoint  of  evangelical  truth.  In  recent 
years  systematic  biblical  instruction  has  been  introduced-  into 
many  of  our  institutions.  In  some  colleges,  the  doctrines  of  our 
Church,  as  embodied  in  the  catechism,  are  made  a  required  study. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  find  argument?,  and  even  strong  ones,  in  favor 
of  such  instruction.  But  in  the  colleges  of  the  English-speaking 
part  of  our  Church,  it  has  generally  been  judged  best  not  to  make 
strictly  denominational  instruction  a  i)art  of  the  required  courses 
of  study.  Strictly  sectarian  teaching  can  hardly  be  regarded  as 
forming  an  essential  part  of  the  liberal  culture,  which  a  college 
course  is  designed  to  give.  Furthermore,  none  of  our  institutions 
are  strong  enough,  as  we  shall  see,  to  depend  solely  on  Lutheran 
patronage;  and  hence,  as  a  matter  of  practical  wisdom,  our  Eng- 
lish colleges  aim  only  at  the  broad  Christian  culture  that  will 
commend  them  to  the  public  at  large.  Instruction  in  the  doc- 
trines of  our  Church  is  generally  provided ;  but  it  stands  outside 
of  the  regular  courses,  and  is  left  optional  with  the  student. 

The  organic  relation  between  our  colleges  and  the  Church  is 
not  everywhere  the  same.  In  the  case  of  individual  enterprises, 
the  connection  seems  to  be  merely  nominal.  In  some  cases,  the 
college  is  under  the  control  of  a  self-perpetuating  board  of  trus- 
tees, a  large  majority  of  Avhom  are  required  by  the  charter  to  be 
members  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  In  other  cases,  one  or  more 
synods  exercise  control  through  the  appointment  of  the  governing 
board.  Each  of  these  two  methods  has  its  place  and  its  advan- 
tages. The  former  method  is  the  natural  one,  when  institutions 
have  originated  independently  of  synodical  action  and  are  carried 
on  without  synodical  sui)port.  The  latter  method  brings  the  col- 
lege into  closer  relation  with  the  Church  in  its  organized  capacity, 
and  is  eminently  proper  where  institutions  are  founded  and  main- 
tained by  synodical  action. 

It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  the  young  women  of  our 
country  should  have  equal  educational  advantages  with  the  young 
men.  Hence,  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  colleges  and  universi- 
ties of  America  are  open  to  both  sexes.     In  the  West  the  system 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  99 

of  co-education  generally  prevails,  and  nearly  all  our  stronger 
institutions  there  admit  women.  But  tlirougliout  our  Church 
in  the  Atlantic  States,  co-education  has  not  yet  been  cordially 
adopted,  and  the  prevailing  system  is  that  of  separate  schools. 
Of  the  dozen  colleges  and  seminaries  for  young  women  reported 
in  our  Year  Books,  only  one  is  west  of  the  Ohio  River.  The 
majority  of  these  schools  are  within  the  bounds  of  the  United 
Synod.  With  the  limited  resources  at  their  command,  they  have 
acconij)lished  surprising  results,  sending  forth  many  noble,  intel- 
ligent women.  But  none  of  these  institutions  are  endowed. 
None  of  them  have  courses  of  study  or  standards  of  instruction 
equal  to  those  of  our  best  male  or  co-educational  colleges.  A 
really  strong  college  for  young  women — one  with  sufficient  means 
to  enforce  high  standards — is  really  a  desideratum  in  our  Church. 
But  those  who  hold  that  young  women  are  incapable  of  high 
standards  of  education,  or  who  believe  that  high  culture  unfits 
them  for  their  work  in  life,  have  eminent  reason  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  existing  condition  of  things  in  the  Atlantic  States. 

The  catalogues  and  published  statistics  of  our  colleges  reveal 
some  noteworthy  facts.  In  many  of  our  institutions,  the  stand- 
ards of  admission  and  graduation,  as  compared  with  representa- 
tive colleges  of  our  country,  are  very  low.  For  lack  of  teaching 
force  or  under  the  inertia  of  educational  conservatism,  the  courses 
of  instruction  in  some  colleges  have  not  been  expanded  to  keep 
pace  with  the  development  of  science  or  to  meet  the  new  demands 
of  modern  life.  None  of  our  colleges  are  adequately  endowed, 
and  a  large  number  are  without  any  endowment  at  all.  With 
only  a  few  exceptions,  they  are  deficient  in  buildings,  libraries 
and  scientific  apparatus.  Not  one  has  dispensed  with  a  prepara- 
tory department,  and  in  most  cases,  the  })reparatory  dejiartment 
constitutes  numerically  the  larger  part  of  the  college.  Of  our 
fifty  colleges,  only  five  have  more  than  one  hundred  students  in 
the  college  classes.  Nearly  half  of  them  have  fewer  than  fifty 
students  in  the  college  department,  and  in  not  a  few  cases  the 
numl)er  falls  below  twenty-five.  In  view  of  these  facts,  there  are 
serious  grounds  for  suspecting  that  many  of  our  colleges,  judged 
by  proper  standards,  are  colleges  only  in  name. 


100  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Under  the  operation  of  the  general  and  particular  causes  already 
considered,  it  seems  that  our  Church  has  established  too  many 
colleges.  With  the  existing  standards  in  our  country,  Avhich  are 
being  rapidly  advanced,  we  have  more  colleges  than  we  can 
properly  equip  and  endow.  The  statistics,  which  seem  to  estab- 
lish these  truths,  will  hardly  be  found  dry.  According  to  the 
"Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education"  for  1895-96,  the 
Methodists  have  eighty-seven  colleges  in  this  country,  or  one,  on 
an  average,  for  every  55,000  members.  The  Baptists  have  fifty 
colleges,  or  one  for  every  80,000  members.  The  Episcopalians 
have  five  colleges,  or  one  for  every  90,000  members.  The  Luth- 
erans, according  to  our  Year  Books,  have  fifty  colleges,  or  one 
for  every  30,000  members.  In  other  words,  we  are  trying  to  do 
in  the  work  of  higher  education  nearly  twice  as  much  as  the 
Methodists  and  three  times  as  much  as  the  Baptists  and  Episco- 
palians— denominations  that  are  financially  much  stronger.  At 
first  sight  this  might  be  taken  as  a  proof  of  the  superior  activity 
and  devotion  of  our  people;  but  an  inquiry  into  the  matter  of 
equipment  and  endowment  speedily  dissipates  this  illusion. 

Still  following  the  statistics  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
we  learn  that  the  one  hundred  and  eleven  non-sectarian  colleges 
and  universities  of  our  country  have  an  average  endowment  of 
$582,000.  The  average  endowment  of  Methodist  colleges  is 
S108,000 ;  of  Baptist  colleges,  $267,000 ;  of  Episcopal  colleges, 
6315,000;  of  Congregational  colleges,  $330,000.  After  these 
magnificent  figures,  it  costs  an  effort  to  state  that  the  average 
endowment  of  our  Lutheran  colleges  is  only  $18,000.  Yet  it 
would  be  unjust  to  express  or  imply  any  reflection  on  the  liber- 
ality of  our  people.  Our  Lutheran  population,  now  aggregating 
a  church  membership  of  a  million  and  a  half,  is  made  up  largely 
of  recent  immigration  from  Germany  and  Scandinavia.  Our 
people,  particularly  in  the  South  and  "West,  have  not  yet  acquired 
the  abundant  wealth  from  which  munificent  endowments  come. 
In  view  of  all  these  facts,  is  it  not  evident  that  we  are  trying  to 
do  more  than  we  can  accomplish  with  creditable  efficiency? 

The  mistake  of  unduly  multiplying  colleges  has  been  greatest 
in  the  South.     The  United  Synod  has  only  40,000  members;  yet 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  101 

uitliin  its  territory  there  are  no  fewer  tlian  seven  colleges,  or  one 
for  every  6,000  members.  Most  of  these  colleges  have  no  endow- 
ment; and  the  aggregate  available  endowment  of  the  three 
strongest  is  less  than  $100,000.  All  of  them,  be  it  said  to  their 
honor,  are  doing  good  work  ;  but  it  is  done  with  inadequate 
equipment,  and  at  the  cost  of  heroic  self-sacrifice.  Their  strug- 
gle for  existence  is  maintained  with  great  courage ;  but  most  of 
them,  without  a  change  of  policy,  are  probably  destined  to  suc- 
cumb. 

In  this  survey  of  our  educational  situation,  which  is  not  flat- 
tering in  some  of  its  features,  let  us  not  forget  the  invaluable  ser- 
vice rendered  to  the  Church  by  many  of  its  struggling  colleges. 
Whatever  mistakes  may  have  been  made,  the  history  of  our  col- 
leges reveals  a  churchly  devotion  and  faithful  courage.  Without 
the  colleges  founded  in  weakness  four  or  five  decades  ago,  our 
Church  would  have  sustained  immeasurable  losses.  For  many 
years,  as  is  well  known,  Pennsylvania  College  supplied  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking part  of  our  Church  with  ministers.  The  Church 
in  Ohio  and  adjoining  States  owes  a  great  debt  to  Wittenberg 
College.  The  two  Synods  of  Virginia  are  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  graduates  and  former  students  of  Roanoke  College.  The 
Synod  of  South  Carolina  is  made  up  chiefly  of  graduates  of  New- 
berry College.  In  like  manner  it  might  be  shown  that  all  our 
older  colleges  have  been  invaluable  to  the  Church  in  supplying 
it  with  ministers  and  intelligent  laymen. 

This  study  of  our  educational  work  would  be  an  incomplete 
and  thankless  task  if  it  stopped  with  a  presentation  of  present 
defects  and  past  mistakes.  Fortunately  it  readily  suggests  some 
of  the  means  by  which  our  higher  institutions  of  learning  may  be 
improved.  Though  nothing  but  the  stress  of  necessity  will  proba- 
bly lead  to  any  considerable  change,  it  is  surely  worth  something 
to  bring  clearly  before  our  minds  some  of  the  remedial  measures 
that  are  needed. 

1.  First  of  all,  has  not  the  time  arrived  for  insisting  on  higher 
standards  for  our  colleges?  With  the  marvellous  growth  of  our 
Church  in  numbers,  wealth  and  intelligence,  we  seem  to  be  in  a 
position,  particularly  in  the  East,  to  provide  and  require  better 


102  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

things.  The  college  of  fifty  years  ago,  however  useful  in  its  day, 
does  not  meet  the  demands  or  satisfy  the  standards  of  the  present. 
Institutions  doing  the  work  of  high  schools  or  academies  ought 
not  to  be  called  colleges.  A  college  worthy  of  the  name  can  no 
longer  be  built  up  and  maintained  without  large  suras  of  money. 
Not  a  few  enthusiastic  educators,  inspired  by  the  achievemeuta 
of  half  a  century  ago,  undertake  to  found  institutions  without 
adequate  backing  in  means  and  patronage.  They  forget  the 
changed  conditions  that  render  success  in  such  undertakings 
well-nigh  impossible.  The  statistics  of  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion enable  us  to  form  a  definite  idea  of  what  a  college  ought  to 
be.  The  four  hundred  and  eighty-four  colleges  and  universities 
of  this  country  have,  on  an  average,  twenty-five  professors,  one 
hundred  and  forty-two  students  in  the  academic  department, 
scientific  apparatus  valued  at  $33,000,  buildings  and  grounds 
worth  $244,000,  and  an  endowment  fund  of  $228,000.  These 
figures  show  us  substantially  what  an  average  college  ought  to 
be  in  equipment,  attendance  and  endowment.  As  we  have  seen, 
our  institutions  fall  far  short  of  this  standard.  It  is  a  humiliating 
fact,  and  from  this  time  on  we  should  insist  on  greater  things ; 
and  instead  of  multi])lying  weak  and  struggling  colleges,  we 
should  henceforth  strive,  in  our  higher  education,  at  least  to  ap- 
proximate the  average  standard  of  our  country.  Otherwise  our 
Church,  whatever  its  heritage  of  history  and  doctrine,  will  stand 
shorn,  in  large  measure,  of  its  influence  and  power. 

2.  Again,  our  educational  situation  clearly  shows  the  need  of 
greater  unity  and  co-operation  in  our  Church.  It  is  a  happy 
omen  that  this  need  is  coming  to  be  generally  felt.  Our  divi- 
sions and  antagonisn)s,  to  say  nothing  of  their  ofifense  to  the 
supreme  law  of  charity,  are  generally  being  recognized  as  sources 
of  great  weakness  and  waste.  As  we  have  seen,  the  undue  mul- 
tiplication of  colleges  in  our  Church  was  caused  largely  by  doc- 
trinal and  linguistic  diiferences.  If  this  fatal  policy  is  to  be  dis- 
continued, if  the  unfortunate  mistakes  of  the  past  are  to  be 
corrected,  it  nuist  be  through  greater  unity  of  feeling  and  action. 
The  various  parts  of  our  Church  must  draw  closer  together. 
Under  the  lust  for  gold,  men  come  together  in  great  corporations, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  103 

ill  which  individual  opinions  and  interests  are  sacrificed  for  the 
general  good.  Under  the  influence  of  divine  love  and  of  devo- 
tion to  Christ's  kingdom,  should  we  not  unite  more  closely  for 
the  sake  of  greater  power  and  efhciency  in  His  work?  Thus  Ave 
should  remove  the  reproach,  as  true  to-day  as  it  was  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago,  that  "the  children  of  this  world  are  wiser 
than  the  children  of  light." 

3.  The  method  by  which  existing  evils  are  to   be  corrected 
is  concentration.     We  should  cease  trying  to  do  more  than  we 
can  do  well.     Fortunately,  the  application  of  this  method  is  not 
so  difficult  as  might  at  first  be  supposed.     In  the  English-speak- 
ing part  of  our  Church,  there  is  a  singular  lack  of  separate  pre- 
paratory schools.     Within  the  bounds  of  the  General  Council, 
the  General  Synod,  and  the  United  Synod,  with  an  aggregate 
membership  of  568,000,  our  Year  Book  reports  less  than  a  half 
dozen  academies  or  preparatory  schools.     Yet,  as  is  evident  from 
the  preparatory  departments  maintained  by  our  colleges,  there 
is  a  real  need  for  good  secondary  schools.     Under  these  circum- 
stances, would  it  not  be  wise  for  some  of  our  weakest  colleges, 
especially  in  the  most  crowded  sections  of  our  Church,  to  give  up 
the  work  of  higher  education,  and  confine  themselves  to  prepara- 
tory studies  ?     Besides  strengthening  the  central  institution  that 
might  be  selected,  this  course  would  relieve  some  of  our  strug- 
gling colleges  of  an  almost  intolerable  burden,  and  fill  a  large 
want  in  our  educational  work.     In  other  cases,  the  wasteful  sys- 
tem of  maintaining  separate  schools  for  the  two  sexes  might  be 
given  up.     Co-education  is  now  the  system  of  our  country ;  and 
where  separate  schools  are  maintained  in  the  same  town  or  synod, 
a  union  might  be  advantageously  effected,  the  weaker  institution 
continuing  its  work  as  a  preparatory  school.     There  is,  perhaps, 
no  part  of  our  Church   in  which  this  policy  of  concentration 
might  not  be  profitably  adopted  ;  but  it  is  especially  needed  in 
the  South,  where  the  union  of  any  four  or  five  colleges  would  not 
make  one  really  strong  institution. 

4.  Another  important  point,  calling  for  special  consideration, 
is  the  adequate  endowment  of  our  colleges.  Our  notable  defi- 
ciency in  this  respect,  as  compared  with  the  other  colleges  of  our 
country,  has  been  pointed   out.     But  the  urgent  necessity  of 


104  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

liberal  endowment  can  be  fully  understood,  only  \vbeu  we  bring 
before  our  minds  the  educational  development  and  tendencies  of 
our  country.  As  every  one  knows,  the  educational  progress  of 
the  past  thirty  or  forty  years  has  been  wonderfully  rapid.  The 
state  has  been  vigilant  and  untiring  in  improving  its  schools  of 
every  grade.  Sooner  or  later  the  Michigan  system,  which  pro- 
ceeds in  well-graded  ascent  from  the  primary  school  to  the  uni- 
versity, will  be  generally  adopted.  The  state  universities,  espe- 
cially in  the  South  and  West,  are  among  the  strongest  and  best 
equipped  of  our  country.  The  non-sectarian  and  the  strong  de- 
nominational colleges  are  keeping  pace  with  this  rapid  develop- 
ment. Unless  our  Lutheran  institutions  can  likewise  be  devel- 
oped and  improved,  we  shall  sooner  or  later  lag  far  in  the  rear, 
and  fail  to  command  the  respect  and  i)atronage  of  our  laity.  The 
importance  of  liberal  endowment,  as  the  only  means  of  maintain- 
ing and  developing  our  colleges,  cannot  be  too  strongly  urged. 
With  all  earnestness  it  should  be  laid  upon  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  our  men  of  wealth ;  for,  without  liberal  endowment,  our 
church  colleges,  under  the  stress  of  unequal  competition  with 
stronger  institutions,  will  be  compelled,  sooner  or  later,  to  give 
up  the  struggle. 

The  concluding  word  of  this  paper  is  devoted  to  a  beautiful 
ideal.  Turning  for  a  moment  from  the  defects  and  difficulties  of 
the  present,  we  may  find  comfort  and  cheer  in  what,  if  it  ever 
comes,  will  be  the  golden  age  of  our  Church  in  America.  In 
that  future  day  the  narrow  views  and  hampering  conditions  of  the 
present  will  have  disappeared.  Our  great  Church,  vastly  in- 
creased in  numbers  and  power,  will  have  become  conscious  of  its 
essential  unity,  and,  earnestly  rising  to  its  responsibilities,  will 
throw  its  united  strength  against  ignorance  and  sin.  Questions 
of  anise  and  cummin  will  no  longer  interfere  with  its  divine  task 
of  building  up  the  kingdom  of  God.  Our  independent  and  often 
ill-considered  efforts  in  education  will  have  given  place  to  a  har- 
monious and  well-ordered  system ;  and  rising  above  our  schools 
and  colleges,  there  will  stand  by  some  fair  city,  let  us  hope,  a 
great  Lutheran  University,  which,  taking  its  place  by  the  side  of 
the  strong  and  venerable  institutions  of  the  world,  will  be  fear- 
lessly open-hearted  to  all  truth  as  a  revelation  of  God. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  105 


OUR  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

BY  PROF.  S.  A.  ORT,  D.D.,  IX.  D. 

There  are  one  hundred  and  thirty  institutions  of  learning  in  the 
Lutheran  Church  of  the  United  States.  Of  this  number  twenty- 
seven  are  theoh)gical  seminaries,  forty-three  are  colleges,  twelve 
are  young  women's  schools,  and  forty-eight  are  academies.  These 
are  our  educational  institutions.  They  exhibit  the  state  of  higher 
Christian  education  among  Lutheran  people  in  this  country. 

In  dimension  they  are  small,  but  nevertheless  efficient.  They 
furnish  an  intellectual  development  which  is  unsurpassed  by  larger 
schools,  and  afford  an  educational  discipline  peculiar  to  the  small 
college.  In  schools  of  this  order  teacher  and  student  come  daily 
in  contact  with  one  another. 

On  this  account  the  pupil  gets  from  his  instructor  not  only 
scholastic  attainments,  but  specially  that  which  books  do  not  have 
and  learning  does  not  furnish.  It  is  a  something  which  is  pecu- 
liar to  the  individual.  It  is  termed  sometimes  magnetism,  again, 
a  spirit  of  enthusiasm,  and  still  again,  a  positive  characteristic  of 
the  teacher,  a  predominant  element  of  his  personality.  Through 
daily  association  between  instructor  and  student,  such  as  can  only 
be  afforded  in  the  small  college,  an  acquisition  of  the  best  the 
teacher  is,  as  well  as  has,  is  gained  by  the  pupil. 

.  Although  our  schools  are  small,  still  they  give  a  priceless  edu- 
cation. At  the  same  time  it  must  be  said  that  our  institutions  do 
their  work  under  disadvantage.  Usually  they  have  small  funds 
for  the  conduct  of  their  operations.  The  amount  of  apparatus 
needed  for  the  successful  exhibition  of  scientific  processes,  is  lim- 
ited. The  various  appliances  necessary  for  the  right  prosecution 
of  educational  work  are,  comparatively  speaking,  of  inferior  kind. 
Notwithstanding  such  like  impediments,  our  schools  are  doing 
most  useful  service  for  Christian  education  and  the  practical  con- 
cerns of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom. 

If  it  be  inquired,  Of  what  service  are  these  schools  of  ours  to 
education,  especially  to  higher  education  ?  it  should  be  answered 
that  they  are  making  a  most  valuable  contribution  of  mental  and 


106  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

moral  irrowtli.  Should  the  inquiry  be  pressed.  Why  luight  not  all 
of  them,  ^vith  the  exception  of  the  theological,  be  closed,  and  the 
matter  of  literary  and  scientific  culture  be  entrusted  entirely  to 
the  care  of  the  world  schools?  it  nuist  always  be  insisted  that  the 
best  culture  is  a  Christian,  literary  and  scientific  culture,  that  the 
truest  education  is  a  Christian  education. 

"We  often  speak  of  hiffher  Christian  education ;  what  does  the 
expression  mean?  Evidently  this:  That  truth  in  the  kingdom 
of  nature,  as  well  as  that  of  man,  is  viewed  in  its  relation  to 
every  other  truth,  in  the  light  of  Christianity. 

The  State  school,  or  the  school  of  this  world,  views  all  truth 
in  the  light  of  natural  reason.  The  education  which  it  furnishes 
is  non-Christian.  It  is  heathen.  In  the  progress  of  educational 
work,  the  Christian  idea  of  the  universe  must  be  maintained.  It 
is  the  only  true  idea  of  the  natural  world  in  its  origin,  progress 
and  destiny.  Who  will  uphold  it  ?  The  Secular  School  ?  As- 
suredly not.  Who  then  ?  Evidently  the  Christian  institution  ; 
such  an  institution  as  is  represented  by  our  schools  of  higher 
learning.  The  Christian  idea  of  nuxn  and  of  the  natural  world, 
both  as  they  are  in  themselves  and  in  their  relations  to  each 
other,  is  the  idea  that  must  permeate  education,  if  it  shall  be 
truly  Christian.  Who  has  this  idea  in  its  original  fulness?  The 
Christian  school,  the  institutions  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Being  the  possessors  of  it,  their  mission  is,  for  one  thing,  to  ex- 
hibit this  idea  in  all  its  bearings,  so  that  the  education  given  the 
youths  of  any  generation  may  be  a  knowledge  of  nature,  man 
and  God,  an  education  eminently  useful,  because  absolutely  true. 
And  this  is  a  great  service  to  education,  to  the  pronu)tion  of  that 
kind  of  education  which  conserves  the  truth  in  all  things  and 
preserves  the  consistent  unity  of  human  knowledge. 

The  school  of  this  world  is  not  qualified  to  do  the  work  of  the 
Christian  College.  The  former  cannot  be  a  substitute  for  the 
latter.  Our  schools  must  hence  be  maintained  for  the  sake  of 
that  better,  truer  education,  which  the  Church  of  Christ  alone 
can  offer,  although  it  be  at  the  cost  of  a  long  continued,  even 
desperate  struggle  for  existence. 

Furthermore,  our  institutions  are  serviceable  to  the  cause  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  107 

higher  cducatiou  iu  that  tliey  furnish  opportunity  to  a  large 
number  of  the  youtli  iu  our  churches  to  gain  for  themselves  a 
souud  intellectual  culture.  They  bring,  in  a  sense,  to  the  doors 
of  our  people,  educational  advantages  \Yhich  otherwise  they 
would  not  have,  and  make  possible  on  the  part  of  many  young 
men  and  women  in  circumstances  of  poverty,  the  getting  for 
themselves  an  advanced  education.  And  surely  this  is  a  most 
valuable  service.  The  youths  in  our  congregations  need  to  have 
the  horizon  of  their  intelligence  broadened ;  they  should  be 
fitted  to  occupy  positions  of  large  responsibility  ;  they  should  be 
filled  with  higli  aims  and  far-reaching  purposes  ;  they  should  in 
every  way  be  qualified  to  perform  the  leading  acts  of  Christian 
men  and  women  in  the  great  play  of  human  life ;  they  need  edu- 
cation, higher  education,  the  education  which  cultures  mind,  and 
heart,  and  soul.  This  is  the  education  which  our  institutions 
offtr  the  young  men  and  women  of  our  Church,  and  in  so  doing 
perform  a  service  whose  value  cannot  be  ciphered  in  dollars  and 
cents. 

It  is  further  to  be  observed  that  our  schools  of  learning  are 
most  helpful  to  the  Church,  helpful  to  her  in  the  doing  of  the 
vast  work  unto  which  she  has  been  called  and  in  the  fulfillment 
of  the  mission  to  which  she  has  been  providentially  appointed. 
The  Lutheran  Church  occupies  no  mean  place  in  the  past  history 
of  350  years.  She  holds  a  position  of  eminence  among  the  record- 
making  powers  of  to-day.  Her  vigorous  growth  and  busy  activ- 
ity in  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  assure  a  develop- 
ment and  progress  in  the  coming  hundred  years  unparalleled. 
She  is  destined  to  embrace  by  and  by  within  her  fold  and  under 
her  influence  many  peoples  of  the  earth.  The  field  of  her  opera- 
tions is  wide  as  the  world.  The  work  which  under  God  she  is 
charged  to  do  is  not  only  that  of  making  Christians,  but  of 
schooling  them  in  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion  in  such  way 
that  it  will  be  seen  everywhere  that  nature  and  grace  are  parts  of 
one  eternal  plan,  that  they  are  not  antagonistic,  but  in  closest 
harmony,  and  that  they  stand  together  in  perfect  unity  in  the 
person  of  the  God-man,  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  work  of  vast  ex- 
tent and  loftiest  reach,  and  can  only  be  accomplislied  by  laying 


108  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

under  contribution  every  agency  at  command.  The  goal  of 
liuniun  liistury,  the  destiny  of  man,  unspeakable  in  its  glory,  will 
be  attained  only  by  the  use  of  the  powers  of  nature,  enlivened, 
sanctified  and  inspired  by  the  Divine.  And  this  great  and 
precious  truth  the  Lutheran  Church  has  always  recognized.  She 
has  ever  repudiated  the  heathen  conce})tion  of  nature  and  spirit 
in  their  relation  to  one  another,  and  taught  that  in  man  they  are 
bound  together  in  an  inseparable  union  ;  that  human  life,  human 
history  and  human  destiny  involve  the  one  in  its  fullness  as  truly 
as  the  other,  and  that  hence  science  and  religion,  natural  knowl- 
edge and  faith,  are  in  perpetual  unison. 

Accordingly,  in  the  outset  of  her  career,  the  Lutheran  Church 
did  not  break  with  the  learning  of  the  ages.  She  began  her 
course  in  a  university.  She  appropriated  the  treasures  of  human 
wisdom  and  culture.  She  laid  hold  of  the  forms  of  thought  fur- 
nished by  man's  reason,  and  by  means  of  them  gave  a  fresh  ex- 
pression of  the  eternal  truths  of  Divine  revelation.  "With  her, 
intellectual  culture  became  the  embodiment  of  spiritual  oppres- 
sion. Siie  expended  the  wealth  of  two  literatures,  the  Greek  and 
Roman,  in  formulating  and  expounding  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  our  holy  religion.  With  the  AVord  of  God  in  one  hand 
and  human  science  in  the  other,  she  has  gained  for  herself  an 
enviable  fame,  and  wields  an  influence  in  the  realm  of  learning, 
supreme.  In  theology,  philosophy  and  science  she  is  to-day  the 
teacher  of  the  world.  This  commanding  eminence  she  has 
reached  through  her  fostering  care  of  human  learning  in  connec- 
tion with  the  intuitions  of  an  evangelical  faith.  AVithout  the 
gymnasium  and  the  university  her  past  history  would  be  far  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is.  She  would  long  since  have  vanished  from 
view.  She  would  scarcely  have  emerged  from  reformation 
scenes  and  passed  beyond  the  struggles  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Her  career  would  have  been  a  short  and  hasty  course. 

A  true  education  and  the  Christian  religion  can  never  be 
divorced  without  inflicting  on  the  body  of  Christ  the  deepest 
wounds.  It  would  be  a  delusive  opinion  to  suppose  that  in  this 
country  the  Lutheran  Church  could  meet  the  demands  of  her 
time,  utilize  in  the  best  way  her  large  opportunities  and  rise  to 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  109 

the  position  of  pre-eminence  without  being  true  to  the  genius  of 
her  ancistral  history.  She  cannot  flourish  independent  of  the 
academy,  the  college,  and  the  seminary.  And  she  has  not.  Her 
schools  to-day,  modest  though  they  be  in  appearance,  are  never- 
theless proving  themselves  to  be  efficient  agents  in  the  promotion 
of  her  concerns,  and  powers  whose  influence  is  felt  in  every  de- 
partment of  church  endeavor  and  in  the  impression  made  on  the 
external  world.  They  are  educating  the  leaders  and  chief  actors 
of  the  coming  generation.  They  are  moulding  the  characters, 
and  stimulating  the  minds  and  hearts  of  thousands  of  young  men 
and  Avomen  to  higher  aims.  They  are  disseminating  a  better 
intelligence  among  our  people.  They  are  awakening  the  ener- 
gies of  our  Church  and  prompting  her  to  enlarged  enterprise  in 
the  prosecution  of  those  affliirs  which  pertain  to  an  aggressive 
Christianity.  They  are  exhibiting  the  knowledge  of  a  true 
Lutheranism  and  spreading  it  far  and  wide  throughout  our 
land.  And  with  all  this  it  must  yet  be  said  that  tlicsc  educa- 
tional institutions,  in  the  work  they  are  doing  and  by  the  influ- 
ence they  wield,  have  made  possible,  and  in  large  measure  brought 
to  pass,  this  convention  in  which  are  gathered  many  Lutherans 
from  different  bodies  in  the  same  Church,  in  peaceful  conference. 
These  schools  of  ours,  though  small,  are  not  to  be  despised. 
They  are  in  the  process  of  growth.  They  are  advancing,  slowly 
it  may  be,  yet  surely.  Behind  them  is  a  great  Church  that  will 
yet  exalt  them  among  the  educational  powers  of  the  land.  They 
deserve  to  be  appreciated  for  what  they  are,  for  the  service  they 
render  our  Church  to-day,  and  for  the  larger  heli^fidness  they 
will  furnish  the  cause  of  scientific  and  religious  truth  in  the 
coming  years. 

Once  more  it  should  be  noted  that  our  educational  schools, and 
especially  those  of  theology,  are  serviceable  to  the  interests  of  true 
religion  in  maintaining  an  evangelical  Christianity  and  a  pure 
Gospel.  In  our  time  much  is  said  about  broad  religious  views, 
liberal  belief,  the  old  faith  outlived,  creeds  exploded,  present-day 
relifnon  minus  the  traditions  of  the  Church,  the  thcologicnl 
teachings  of  Paul  and  the  historic  deeds  of  Christ,  the  simple 
exhibition  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus. 


no  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

A  new  religious  teaching  is  in  fashion.  It  has  nuich  to  say 
against  dogma.  It  professes  to  exclude  the  philosophical  element 
from  the  exhibitions  of  Divine  truth.  It  puts  away  as  worthless 
all  formulated  statements  of  belief,  assuring  us  that  no  mould  of 
the  human  understanding  is  sufficient  to  contain  the  Divine 
Word.  Religious  truth,  truth  contained  in  sacred  books,  is  so 
many  sided,  and  so  over-reaching  that  the  logical  speech  of  man 
can  never  give  it  adequate  expression.  To  accept  hence  the 
teaching  and  definite  statement  of  the  Christian  mind  concern- 
ing the  eternal  verities  of  a  remedial  scheme  is  a  foolish  mistake. 
It  is  an  effectual  barrier  to  right  progress.  It  makes  the  moral 
and  spiritual  boundaries  of  human  life  quite  narrow.  It  shuts 
out  the  spirit  of  heaven-born  truth,  ever  aglow  with  freshness  of 
a  holy  activity,  and  preserves  only  the  deadness  of  tlie  letter. 

But  for  us  human  creatures  knowledge  of  religious  truth  must 
have  an  authoritative  source.  This  source  is  centered  either  in  a 
divine  revelation  recorded  in  plain  and  fixed  statement,  or  in  the 
judgments  of  the  scientific,  literary  or  philosophical  reason,  or  in 
the  decisions  of  an  infallible  Church.  The  advancing  liberalism 
of  the  day  recognizes  as  supreme  the  second,  namely,  that  of  human 
reason.  The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  accord- 
ing to  its  judgment,  are  a  book  of  alien  parts,  full  of  contradic- 
tions, inaccuracies  and  discrepancies,  containing  the  religious 
opinions  of  the  several  authors,  or  those  which  were  afloat  in 
their  respective  times ;  crude,  extravagant,  over-statements,  and 
under-statcments  of  what  is  vali<l  l^elief,  and  wlien  taken  togetlicr 
they  form  a  medley  of  views  I'rom  which  it  is  the  mi.ssion  of 
modern  scientific  reason  to  extract  the  truth  which  will  morally 
and  religiously  culture  tlie  race  and  save  the  world. 

This  is  the  new  religion  whose  excellence  some  are  enthusiastic 
to  extol  above  the  grandeur  of  the  unchanged  Bible  and  the  old 
faith:  a  religion  which  repudiates  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  evan- 
gelical Christianity  wliile  at  the  same  time  it  retains  their  form. 
It  believes  in  a  God,  but  he  is  not  the  eternal  triune  God,  whom 
our  Scriptures,  just  as  they  read,  reveal.  He  is  an  eternal  exist- 
ence whom  the  human  mind  imagines,  but  for  whom  it  has  no 
voucher  save  its  own  judgment :  a  deity  who  has  no  being  any- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  HI 

where,  if  these  Scriptures  are  reliable,  and  they  are,  except  in 
the  brain  of  the  new  religionist;  an  ideal  God  whose  only  need 
for  us  mortals  is  to  connect  our  religious  ideas  in  order  to  effect 
the  highest  systematic  unity  in  our  spiritual  knowledge. 

Furthermore  this  new  religion  professes  an  earnest  belief  in 
the  Christ,  but  he  is  not  the  Son  of  God,  co-equal  with  the 
Father,  and  also  the  Son  of  Man.  He  is  a  subordinate  being, 
divine  as  all  men  are  divine,  only  in  an  inexpressibly  higher 
degree,  a  veritable  religious  genius,  who  by  his  life  has  furnished 
to  those  since  his  day,  the  perfect  model  of  the  good  and  upright 
man.  He  is  to  be  praised  and  honored  as  a  hero,  and  taken  as 
the  pattern  of  the  truly  devout  religious  spirit,  and  that  is  about 
all.  The  old  faith  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the 
spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in 
the  world,  received  up  into  glory,  is  a  Pauline  dogmatism,  which 
must  be  relegated  to  the  shades  of  the  Olympian  gods. 

Once  more  this  new  religion  speaks  glibly  about  justification 
and  regeneration,  but  these  are  terms,  in  its  use,  of  far  different 
meaning  from  that  taught  by  evangelical  belief.  Justification  is 
no  forensic  act  of  God,  but  a  consequence  of  well  doing.  Re- 
generation is  not  a  work  wrought  in  the  human  soul  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  generating  a  new  life,  but  a  state  which  follows  by  conse- 
quence from  moral  living.  Justification  and  regeneration  are 
ethical  I'esults  produced  by  an  ethical  cause.  Or,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  one  of  its  ablest  American  expounders :  "  The  dogma 
of  justification,  as  a  forensic  act,  springs  out  of  the  dogma  of 
supernatural  regeneiation,  and  from  the  two  arises  the  dogma  of 
an  atonement,  in  which  the  sufferings  and  righteousness  of  Christ 
take  the  place  of  our  own  righteousness  and  sufferings.  Thus  we 
build  a  theological  block-house  in  defiance  of  ethical  principles, 
and  we  pass  righteousness  backward  and  forward  as  though  it 
were  a  commodity  of  the  market."  That  is  to  say,  the  new 
religion  rejects  the  atonement  of  a  Christ  who  is  our  substitute, 
who  suri'ered  in  our  stead  and  in  whose  righteousness  by  faith  we 
stand  accounted  just  before  God,  repudiates  a  supernatural  regen- 
eration and  hence  Christ's  lesson  to  Nicodemus,  and  attirms 
human  I'cdemption  to  be  merely  an  ethical  process.     Such,  as  its 


112  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

advocates  choose  to  call  it,  is  a  tendency  of  our  time,  a  movement 
which  seeking  to  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles,  in  the  end  loses 
both  bottles  and  wine. 

This  movement  during  some  while  has  been  making  steady  pro- 
gress. It  has  found  a  welcome  in  many  educational  centres.  It  is 
supported  vigorously  by  many  religious  teachers  in  high  places. 
Entire  schools  have  thrown  themselves  into  the  ranks  of  its  ad- 
vocates, while  numerous  religious  journals,  cither  in  part  or 
altogether,  seek  to  promote  its  progress.  It  is  a  dangerous 
tendency,  and,  if  unchecked,  will  finally  undermine  the  founda- 
tion of  our  holy  faith. 

But  it  is  pleasing  to  note  that  our  schools,  without  exception, 
have  given  the  new  religion  no  place  in  their  quarters.  They 
have  remained  steadfast  in  the  old  doctrine,  and  to-day  present 
an  unbroken  front  against  every  foe  of  an  evangelical  Christian- 
ity. While  here  and  there  some  are  giving  up  well-tried  belief 
and  beginning  to  walk  in  new  paths,  our  educational  institutions 
continue  in  the  old  way,  immovably  grounded  in  the  principles  of 
a  supernatural  Christianity.  Without  hesitation  they  teach  the 
old  faith,  the  faith  of  Peter,  of  Paul,  of  Luther,  and  set  forth  with 
no  uncertain  sound  the  historical  reality  of  those  divine  acts  and 
movements  so  faultlessly  exhibited  in  the  sacred  Word,  and  which 
constitute  the  recovery  of  a  sinful  race.  These  are  the  principles 
by  which  as  exponents  of  higher  Christian  education  they  stand, 
and  which  they  fix  in  the  minds  of  young  men  and  women  who 
shortly  will  become  centers  of  Christian  influence  in  the  busy 
world  of  mankind.  By  the  loyalty  to  evangelical  belief  in  the 
hearts  of  thousands  of  our  youth  which  they  secure,  they  are 
guarding  the  welfare  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  not  only  in  the 
present,  but  also  for  the  future.  They  are  making  sure  for  a 
true  Christianity,  the  pulpit  and  the  pew  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. They  are  rendering  possible  the  leadership  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  movements  of  evangelical  religion  decades  hence, 
and  are  ])rei)aring  her,  as  of  old  she  was  prepared,  to  fight  and 
win  the  battle  of  Apostolic  Christianity  in  this  country.  Our  edu- 
cational institutions  are  truly  bulwarks  of  the  true  faith  and  are 
giving  a  service  in  behalf  of  its  interest,  beyond  estimate. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  113 

In  addition  it  must  be  said  that  our  divinity  schools  especially 
are  centers  of  a  true  Lutheranism.  They  not  only  teach  the  fun- 
damental doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God,  but  they  teach  these  doc- 
trines as  exhibited  in  that  masterpiece  of  confessional  statement, 
the  Augustana.  They  are  the  conservators  of  the  principles  of 
the  Kefbrmation  and  of  those  distinctive  apprehensions  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Divine  AVord,  which  have  ever  distinguished  the 
Lutheran  Church  from  all  bodies  of  Protestant  belief  on  the  one 
hand  and,  on  the  other,  from  the  Roman  faith.  They  heartily 
accept  and  entliusiastically  teach  a  genuine  Lutheranism.  And 
this  is  a  service  to  a  pure  Gospel  of  incalculable  value.  It  assures 
the  perpetuity  and  makes  big  with  promise,  the  future  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  this  country. 

Besides  all  this,  the  fact  dare  not  be  overlooked  that  our 
educational  schools  are  ministers  of  good  to  the  State.  They 
are  such  not  merely  because  they  furnish  an  education  to  young 
men  and  women,  but  pre-eminently  because  they  administer  a 
Christian  education  and  inculcate  the  cardinal  truths  of  the 
religion  of  the  Nazarene.  No  republic  can  endure  whose  citi- 
zens are  infidels.  It  may  flourish  for  the  time  being,  but 
sooner  or  later  it  will  perish.  An  education  of  the  American 
youth  of  to-day  that  ignores  or  repudiates  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  endangers  the  perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions 
and  is  paving  the  way  to  their  destruction.  Free  govern- 
ment cannot  stand  and  endure  on  the  principles  of  heathenism. 
The  Christian  colleges  of  to-day,  the  Church  schools,  are  the  hope 
of  the  Kepublic.  They  arc  preparing  the  salt  that  will  preserve 
our  nation  in  the  coming  generation.  To  the  production  of  this 
most  desirable  result  the  institutions  of  the  Lutheran  Ciuirch  are 
contributing  no  small  aid.  By  their  positive  Christian  teaching, 
by  their  earnest  inculcation  of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  by  their  firm  adherence  to  the  truths  of  the 
inspired  Word  of  God,  they  are  preparing  and  sending  forth 
thousands  of  youth  to  be  stalwart  and  truly  loyal  citizens  of  a 
great  republic. 

Finally,  in  view  of  the  most  valuable  service  our  schools  are 
giving   to    higher    education,    to    the    Church,    to    evangelical 


114  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Christianity  and  to  the  State;  what  action  in  their  case  is 
imperative?  I  answer,  They  should  be  strengthened.  How? 
In  two  ways.  1st.  By  money.  They  need  larger  endowments. 
They  ai-e  in  want  of  better  equipments,  both  in  apparatus  and 
teacliing  force.  Money  can  supply  the  need.  The  Lutheran 
people  of  this  country  are  the  possessors  of  large  wealth.  They 
have  abundance  of  worldly  goods.  They  can  endow  amply 
without  delay  every  Lutheran  college  and  seminary  in  the  land. 
And  it  is  their  duty  as  a  Christian  people  so  to  do.  They  owe  it 
to  the  Christianity  they  have,  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
which  they  are  members,  to  the  Lutheranism  of  which  they  are 
loyal  adherents,  and  to  the  institutions  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  which  they  enjoy,  to  exalt  their  educational  institutions 
among  the  schools  of  the  land,  and  amply  qualify  them  to  do  the 
large  and  responsible  work  which,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
they  are  charged  to  prosecute. 

But  2nd.  Our  schools  should  be  strengthened  by  more  students. 
There  are  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Lutheran  young 
men  and  Avoraen  in  America.  Only  a  comparatively  small  num- 
ber are  in  the  schools  of  their  Church.  The  vast  majority  are  not 
in  any  college  or  academy  of  the  land.  Many  of  them  should 
be  in  our  institutions  to-day,  and  if  they  were  a  far  different 
condition,  educationally  taken,  would  prevail  among  us.  Our 
schools  would  be  in  a  highly  flourishing  state,  all  of  them,  and 
they  would  be  sending  forth  an  influence  which  would  be  felt  in 
the  highest  circles  of  literary  culture.  Lutherans  in  America 
cannot  afford  to  deprive  their  children  of  the  benefits  of  higher 
education.  By  so  doing  they  would  prove  themselves  false  to 
the  genius  of  their  church,  indifferent  to  the  best  interest  of  the 
faith  in  which  they  have  been  reared,  and  wanting  in  the  noblest 
type  of  patriotism.  But  I  think  better  things  of  my  people  ac- 
cording to  the  faith.  I  believe  the  time  is  not  far  off  when  they 
will  pour  their  hundreds  of  thousands  into  the  treasuries  of  our 
schools,  and  crowd  their  halls  with  Lutheran  students.  But  in  the 
meanwhile  prompt  action  is  necessary.  Our  Church,  in  her 
school  operations,  nuist  keep  pace  with  the  progressive  march  of 
the  educational  movements  of  the  day.     She  dare  not  lag  behind 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  J 15 

iu  the  race  for  supremacy.  She  must  begiu  without  delay  the 
improvement  of  her  iustitutiojis.  She  must  make  them  strong  in 
order  that  she  may  retain  her  present  energy,  enlarge  her 
borders  and  fulfill  the  worldwide  mission  for  which  she  was 
brought  into  existence  and  has  been  kept  in  reserve  unto  this 
present  hour.  And  lastly,  as  the  outcome  of  all  her  educa- 
tional movements,  there  should  rise  in  the  near  future,  before  the 
gaze  of  the  American  Republic,  a  university,  a  genuine,  great 
Lutheran  university,  which  shall  stand  and  flourish  for  the 
honor  of  our  Church  and  for  the  glory  of  Him  in  whom  are  hid 
all  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowJedge. 

REMARKS. 

Dr.  Seiss  said : — There  are  a  few  historical  items  that  might  be 
added  to  the  statements  contained  in  one  of  the  papers  just  read.  The 
institutions  at  Gettysburg  have  added  greatly  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church  by  the  educational  facilities  there  furnished ;  but  there  were 
earlier  efforts  made  by  our  Church  in  this  country  for  the  promotion 
of  higher  education. 

As  early  as  1769,  at  the  instance  of  Dr.  Kunze  in  this  city,  a  society 
w^as  formed,  and  contributions  collected,  for  the  establishment  of  a 
German-English  school,  designed  particularly  to  prepare  young  men 
for  the  ministry.  It  was  sanctioned  by  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. Its  curriculum  was  to  embrace  History,  Mathematics,  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,  Elocution,  etc.  It  was  regularly  opened  in  February, 
1773,  with  arrangements  for  instruction  in  these  several  departments, 
and  commenced  with  thirteen  students.  But  in  1776  the  Revolutionary 
War,  with  its  attendant  turbulence,  compelled  the  closing  of  the  school 
and  ended  a  promising  beginning. 

Early  in  the  present  century  another  attempt  in  the  same  line  was 
attempted  in  this  city,  in  which  Peter  Muhlenberg  was  interested, 
along  with  other  Lutherans.  A  plan  for  a  classical  school  was 
sketched,  a  copy  of  which,  I  think,  still  exists,  and  some  of  the 
arrangements  completed  for  carrying  it  into  effect.  But  several  causes 
interfered,  and  the  intended  institution  failed  to  be  established. 

One  of  these  hindering  causes  was  the  presence  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  which  our  pastors  and  people  in  this  city  were 
induced  to  take  an  interest,  and  which  they  helped  to  estaltlish.  And 
from  those  early  times,  even  to  the  present,  there  has  been  considerable 
leaning  upon  this  University  on  the  part  of  our  Church  for  the  prelim- 


116  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

inan'  academic  education  of  our  candidates  for  the  ministn-.  Luther- 
ans have  been  among  its  directors  and  professors  ahnost  from  its 
beginning,  and  many  of  our  present  clergy,  as  well  as  of  preceding 
generations,  were  educated  there. 

In  the  State  of  New  York,  by  the  extensive  gift  of  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  a  classical  and  theological 
school  was  established,  nearly  a  score  of  years  in  advance  of  Pennsyl- 
vania College  at  Gettysburg.  It  was  regularly  opened  in  1815,  and 
has  continued  in  operation  to  the  present  time.  A  goodly  number  of 
our  ministers  were  educated  at  this  institution,  which  is  known  as 
Hartwick  Seminary. 

Along  with  the  interesting  and  valuable  papers  which  have  just  been 
read,  it  seemed  to  me  fitting  that  these  items  in  the  line  of  our 
Church's  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  higher  education  should  also  be 
stated. 


THE  SCOPE  AND  LIMITATIONS   OF  CHURCH  AUTHORITY. 

BY   PROF.  DAVID   II.  BAUSLIN,  D.D. 

It  is  an  inadmissible  assumption  that  true  Christianity  is 
nothing  more  than  a  set  of  doctrines  arbitrarily  demanding  assent 
upon  mere  external  grounds  and  assertions  of  authority,  and  that 
it  coerces  conviction  and  duty  by  the  announcement  of  certain 
terrors  and  future  inexorable  events.  This  is  to  misstate  the 
entire  genius  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  may  be  asserted  as 
indisputable,  that  in  matters  of  religion  the  rejection  of  all  author- 
ity outside  of  the  individual  is  eitlier  a  part  and  parcel  of  a  phi- 
losophy vxhich  admits  nothing  but  the  objects  of  sense  percei)tiou, 
and  identifies  all  religion  with  superstition,  or  that,  in  some  way, 
it  is  connected  with  and  springs  from  an  irreligious  temper.  In 
the  subject  of  our  discussion  there  are  two  extremes.  There  is 
the  merely  external  view  that  would  rest  everything  upon  mere 
authority,  giving  no  value  to  any  proof  but  that  of  miracles,  and 
reckoning  men's  judgments  as  to  the  truth  and  loftiness  of  doc- 
trine as  of  no  account.  This  is  one  extreme.  The  other  is  the 
rationalistic  or  mystical  position,  that  nothing  in  religion  is  to  be 
received  except  that  which  is  discerned,  and  understood  and 
accordingly  recognized  as  true.     The  right  position — that  which 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  117 

is  apostolic  iu  its  character  and  \Yliicli  was  reaffirmed  at  the 
Reformation — is  neither  of  these. 

One  of  the  theories  regarding  the  origin  of  tlie  Reformation — 
viz.,  that  of  Guizot — asserts  that  it  was  an  insurrection  against 
authority.  It  was  an  effort,  in  his  judgment,  to  deliver  the  human 
reason  from  the  bonds  of  what  was  mandatory ;  "  an  insurrection 
of  the  human  mind  against  the  absolute  power  of  the  spiritual 
order."  It  was  not  an  accident,  the  result  of  some  casual  circum- 
stance, nor  simply  an  effort  to  purify  the  Church,  or  the  assault 
of  an  Augustiuian  monk,  upon  certain  reprehensible  practices  of 
a  Dominican.  The  comprehensive  and  most  potent  cause  of  that 
great  movement  was  the  dominant  desire  of  the  human  mind  for 
freedom.  Free  thought  and  inquiry  are  the  legitimate  product 
and  the  real  intent  of  the  movement.  Such  is  Guizot's  interpre- 
tation, and  in  entire  harmony  with  this  theory  of  the  author  of 
"  Civilization  in  Europe,"  Romanists  have  always  maintained  that 
Luther's  attack  on  the  hierarchy  in  the  sixteenth  century  broke 
up  the  foundations  of  faith  in  Western  Europe,  and  that  for  this 
he  deserves  eternal  infamy  and  perpetual  maledictions. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  those  who  reject  the  Christian 
revelation  and  deny  all  authority  in  the  province  of  religious 
belief  and  administration,  who  maintain  that  Luther's  chief  merit 
consisted  in  that  revolt  against  the  authority  of  the  pope,  and 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  Romanists,  was  his  chief  crime.  The 
vindication  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  is,  in  the  opinion  of 
such  writers,  the  chief  glory  of  Protestantism,  Thus  it  comes 
that  Catholic  writers  and  the  supporters  of  alleged  free  thought 
are  practically  agreed  in  attributing  to  Luther  and  Protestantism 
a  large  measure  of  responsibility  for  that  form  of  modern  unbe- 
lief which  is  distrustful  of  evertliing  supernatural.  It  has  been 
maintained  that  free  inquiry  and  revolt  against  authority  were 
thus  marks  of  the  Reformation,  and  that  therefore  those  who,  as 
the  result  of  the  exercise  of  their  right  of  private  judgment  in 
matters  of  religion,  have  lost  their  faith  in  Christianity,  have  a 
right  to  claim  Luther  as  one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the  move- 
ment which  has  terminated  in  their  emancipation  from  all  religious 
authority,  and  the  abrogation  of  every  species  of  supernaturalism. 


118  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

It  is,  however,  a  gross  perversion  and  an  entire  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  that  epoch-marking  movement  to  cliaracterize 
the  Reformation  as  a  revolt  against  all  authority  in  matters  of 
religious  belief  and  practice  and  a  nullification  of  all  s^tandards 
in  matters  pertaining  to  man's  higher  nature  and  thought.  It 
was  a  revolt  against  an  arrogant  hierarchy  which  claimed  to  be 
the  permanent  incarnation  of  Christ,  the  body  of  the  Lord,  the 
organ  of  the  Holy  Si^irit,  equally  with  Scripture,  able  to  guide 
men  to  God,  and  assuming  to  be  alone  able  to  determine  what 
was  the  "Word  of  God.  It  was  a  rout  of  papal  marplots,  not  in 
the  name  of  freedom  from  all  authority,  but  in  the  name  of  God. 
It  was  the  assertion  of  an  authority  which  was  believed  by  devout 
and  holy  men  to  be  true  as  over  against  an  authority  which  had 
been  found  false,  arbitrary  and  unethical.  That  great  revolution 
was  not  a  revolt  against  authority  so  much  as  a  revolt  against 
usurpation.  The  kind  of  authority  which  was  now  maintained 
by  the  reformed  religion  was  a  very  different  thing  from  that 
which  had  been  exercised  since  the  days  of  the  consolidation  of 
the  hierarchy. 

Let  it  be  understood  then  that  no  right-thinking  man  is  eager, 
in  the  exercise  of  Reformation  principles,  to  claim  intellectual 
freedom  to  such  an  extent  as  to  abrogate  all  sorts  of  authority. 
There  is  such  a  diversity  among  responsible  agents  who  have  not 
merely  private  and  free  spheres  of  their  own,  that  their  mutual 
relations  in  society  must  be  determined  externally  by  some  prac- 
ticable standard  of  authority  and  felt  to  be  binding  on  all.  Thus 
there  is  authority,  and  the  question  as  to  its  source  aud  applica- 
tions in  whatever  pertains  to  the  high  interests  of  religion  is  a 
living  and  momentous  question. 

The  differences  between  the  conceptions  of  ecclesiatical  author- 
ity m:iintaincd  by  Romanism  and  Lutheran  Protestantism,  in- 
here fundamentally  in  the  divergent  conceptions  of  the  two 
systems  regarding  the  source  of  authority  in  religion.  Catholic 
unity  is  limited  to  two  things  :  (1)  A  recognition  of  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  Church,  and  consequently  of  all  doctrines  upon 
which  that  infallibility  is  known  to  be  stated;  that  is,  wliich 
have  been  unquestionably  defined   by  its  legitimate  organ,  as  a 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  119 

part  of  the  deposit  of  faith,  and  therefore  of  universal  obliga- 
tion ;  and  (2)  acceptance  of  and  submission  to  the  supreme  juris- 
diction of  the  Roman  see,  and  the  authority,  when  lawfully  exer- 
cised, of  the  local  hierarchies  that  are  in  communion  with  it.  It 
holds  to  a  theory  which  affixes  the  attributes  of  unity,  holiness, 
catholicity  and  apostolicity  to  the  external,  visible  society  of 
whicli  the  bishop  of  Rome  is  the  chief ;  that  the  sons  of  the  true 
Church  belong  to  this  society,  and  that  accordingly  the  promises 
made  in  the  New  Testament  to  the  Church  and  the  privileges 
ascribed  to  it,  are  claimed  for  the  hierarchy  exclusively.  The 
Church,  says  Bellarniin,  is  something  as  tangible  as  the  Republic 
of  Venice.  The  difference,  the  primal  difference  in  the  matter  in 
hand,  between  Romanism  and  Protestantism,  as  has  been  admir- 
ably asserted  by  Luthardt,  consists  in  opposite  mental  tendencies. 
"The  opposite  mental  tendencies,"  says  he,  "are  sometimes 
designated  as  authority  and  liberty.  Catholicism  represents 
authority;  Protestantism  represents  liberty.  The  former  advo- 
cates legitimacy;  the  latter  the  rights  of  historical  progress. 
The  former,,  says  Protestant  controversy,  is  stagnation ;  the  lat- 
ter, says  Romish  controversy,  is  the  spirit  of  revolution,  though 
revolution  has  ever  had  her  seat  in  Romish  lands." 

In  Romanism  the  standard  of  truth  is  something  objective, 
universal  and  independent  of  all  private  thouglit  or  will.  Ac- 
cordingly authority  is  made  to  be  everything  and  freedom  noth- 
ing. It  is  not  mediated  at  all  by  man's  actual  life,  by  the 
thinking  and  working  of  single  minds ;  is  in  no  sense  living  or 
concrete,  but  altogether  mechanical,  rigid  and  fixed.  It  looks 
upon  the  episcopate  as  the  continuation  of  the  apostolate,  in 
which  by  virtue  of  succession  there  inhere  the  gifts  or  deposits 
of  truth  and  grace  and  authority.  It  regards  the  acceptance  of 
a  certain  amount  of  information  for  which  man  has  no  inward 
aptitude  in  the  reason,  upon  the  authority  of  the  Church,  as  pos- 
sessing the  merit  of  evangelical  faith.  It  is  an  episcopal  hierar- 
chy which  has  successively  claimed  the  right  to  govern  and  teach 
the  world  in  the  place  of  Christ.  Its  system  of  doctrines  has 
been  constructed,  accordingly,  in  obedience  to  one  test,  viz.,  its 
adaptability  for  holding  mankind  in  subjection  to  external  eccle- 


120  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

siastical  authority.  In  the  Latin  Church  we  see  the  old  Koman 
genius  for  rulership,  the  capacity  to  exercise  authority  character- 
istic of  the  great  empire  of  the  Ctcsars. 

When  we  pass  to  the  region  of  Protestantism  we  are  confronted 
by  a  radically  different  conception.  Lutheranism  revived  and 
reasserted  two  fundamental  and  long  obscured  truths,  viz.,  the 
material  and  formal  principles  of  the  Reformation.  At  once  it 
stood  for  the  religion  of  freedom,  as  over  against  the  religion  of 
mere  objective  authority ;  for  the  religion  of  personal  conviction 
and  inward  experience  as  over  against  the  religion  of  outward 
institutions,  sacramental  observances  and  mere  obedience  to 
authority.  When  the  principle  of  church  authority  represented  by 
the  hierarchy  as  the  eccleda  docens  was  repudiated  by  Luther  in 
the  interest  of  reform,  the  ai)peal  was  taken  to  the  Bible  as  the 
word  of  God.  Up  to  tliat  time,  in  tlie  long  course  of  theological 
development,  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  determine  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Bible  to  the  authority  of  the  Church.  The  voice  of 
the  ecclesia  had  been  regarded  as  final  in  all  matters  relating  to 
the  faith,  and  a  practical  infallibility  was  attributed  to  its  deci- 
sions. When  that  authority  began  to  be  questioned  and  was 
finally  set  aside,  it  became  necessary  to  find  another  source  of 
authority  to  which  all  men  could  resort  when  in  search  of  that 
absolute  truth  which  God  had  communicated  to  men. 

Luther's  revolt  was  against  a  Church  that  had  intrenched 
itself  beliind  the  arrogant  assumption  that  the  Bible  was  only  a 
"deposit  "in  the  hands  of  the  hierarchy,  and  that  to  it  alone 
belonged  the  right  of  determining  what  was  the  meaning  of  the 
divine  revelation.  He  asserted  the  universal  priesthood  of 
believers,  which  meant  that  if  the  laity  had  faith,  the  spirit  and 
mind  of  Christ,  that  they  too  were  entitled  to  interpret  the  Scrip- 
tures. It  was  the  affirmation  of  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
and  as  such  was  the  first  emphatic  protest  against  the  old  appeal 
of  Ireuteus  to  tradition,  the  priority  of  which  was  guaranteed  by 
the  episcopate,  or  against  the  claim  of  Augustine  regarding  the 
divine  prerogatives  of  the  episcopate  to  teach  iufallil)le  truth.  In 
the  face  of  the  graduated  system  of  ecclesiasticism  in  which  the 
clergy  represented  the  bishops,  and  the  bishops  represented  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  121 

pope,  and  tlie  pope  represented  God,  Luther  asserted  the  rights 
of  the  individual  conscience  and  proclaimed  the  privilege  of  pri- 
vate interpretation,  against  all  external  authority.  He  asserted 
the  principle  which  abolished  all  artificial  castes,  whether  in 
church  or  state— a  principle  according  to  which  every  man 
became  a  priest  standing  in  immediate  relation  to  God,  owning 
no  other  or  higher  allegiance  than  the  will  of  God,  clearly 
expressed  in  the  divine  word,  would  sanction.  He  asserted  the 
potent  contradiction  of  the  theory  upon  which  the  authority  of 
the  papal  hierarchy  reposed.  He  denied  the  Church  to  be  a 
mysterious  and  supreme  entity,  existing  apart  from  the  people 
and  possessing  a  deposit  of  supernatural  trusts  which  it  alone  was 
authorized  to  administer. 

Thus  I  say  tliat  the  truly  Protestant  view  regarding  the  scope 
and  administration  of  purely  ecclesiastical  authority  inheres  in 
the  truly  Protestant  view  as  to  the  source  of  authority  in  religion 
itself.  "When  men  came  to  look  upon  the  Church  as  the  associa- 
tion of  believers,  as  an  institution  for  the  dispensation  of  the 
means  of  grace,  as  our  incomparable  Augustana  expre.-^ses  it  as 
nothing  other  than  "the  congregation  of  believers,"  then  the  axe 
was  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  the  human  mind  was  made 
free  from  the  yoke  of  external  authority,  and  the  restoration  of 
the  Scriptures  to  their  legitimate  supremacy  as  the  only  infallible 
rule  of  faith  and  practice  was  made  possible. 

In  accordance  with  these  fundamental  truths  of  all  vital  Pro- 
testantism, Lutheranism  has  arrived  at  certain  conclusions  which 
have  been  set  forth  in  the  accredited  writings  of  the  Church,  and 
from  wliich  our  view  of  the  scope  and  limitations  of  Church  au- 
thority may  be  easily  inferred,  and  upon  the  basis  of  which  our 
church  government  must  always  rest. 

1.  The  headship  of  Christ,  the  recognition  of  which  has  given 
great  assistance  in  the  attempt  to  define  the  limits  of  the  power 
belonging  to  the  Church.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Head  and 
Ruler  of  the  Church,  has  given  such  power  as  is  necessary  for 
the  government  of  His  Church,  not  to  any  one  man,  nor  to  any 
order  of  men,  but  to  the  Church  itself,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  whole 
body  of  believers.     The  long  history  of  the  papacy  had  taught 


122  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  world  liow  pos^^ible  it  is  to  convert  Christ's  donatiou  of  au- 
thority to  the  true  Church  into  an  instrument  of  cruel  oppression. 
There  are  quarters  in  Avhich  one  is  almost  afraid  to  mention 
church  authority,  or  the  "  power  of  the  keys,"  lest  he  should 
suggest  a  claim  to  exercise  tyrannical  dominion  over  man's  faith. 
But  this  recogujtion  of  the  Headship  of  Christ,  which  is  the 
source  from  which  all  lawful  church  authority  flows,  is  at  the 
same  time  the  effectual  antidote  to  all  the  tyrannical  dominion 
which  Church  rulers  have  corruptlj'-  asserted.  Christ  is  not  a 
dead  or  absent  Lord,  who  has  delegated  His  power  to  some  vicar, 
or  body  of  vicars.  He  is  the  Church's  living  and  ever-present 
King;  and  the  power  bestowed  by  Him  on  the  faithful  and  their 
officers  is  strictly  ministerial.  This  most  fruitful  principle  of  the 
ministerial  .quality  of  church  power  flows  directly  from  the  sole 
Lordship  of  Christ. 

2.  This  power,  while  given  to  the  entire  body  of  believers 
throughout  the  world,  and  which  is  called  the  Church,  is  also 
given  to,  and  may  be  exei*cised  by,  those  smaller  bodies  of  be- 
lievers which  we  call  congregations.  While  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession speaks  of  "the  Church,"  it  unmistakably  recognizes  the 
fact  that  "the  Church"  presents  itself  to  us  in  the  form  of 
churches,  and  claims  that  these  churches  have  certain  rights  and 
duties  of  which  it  speaks.  The  conception  of  a  Christian  congre- 
gation implies  the  presence  and  exercise  of  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel ;  that  is  to  say,  a  Christian  congregation  can  be  said  to 
exist  properly  only  when  the  gospel  is  preached  and  the  sacra- 
ments properly  administered.  True,  the  congregation  governs 
itself  under  the  supreme  Headship  of  Christ,  and  according  to 
His  Word ;  nevertheless,  it  does  so  through  the  instrumentality 
of  men  especially  appointed  to  administer  this  power  by  preach- 
ing tlie  Gospel  and  administering  the  sacraments.  The  keys 
were  not  given  to  Peter  and  his  alleged  successors,  but  to  the 
whole  Church  which  has  power  to  ordain  ministers,  and  to  whom 
the  people  ouglit  to  render  obedience  as  long  as  they  confine 
themselves  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word,  and  whom  they  may 
likewise  depose  when  they  are  proven  unworthy, 

3.  These  churches  must  not  forget  and  live  in  defiance  of  or 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  123 

neglect  the  "Church"  of  ^Yhich  they  form  a  part.  The  confes- 
sors of  our  Church  aimed  at  living  in  "  unity  and  concord  " — 
*'in  the  one  Christian  Church."  They  express  the  desire  that 
all  "may  be  brought  back  to  one  true  accordant  religion."  They 
speak  of  the  "Church  Catholic"  as  distinguished  from  the 
"  Romish  Church."  They  speak  of  the  "  true  unity  of  the 
Church,"  and  endeavor  to  inculcate  and  point  out  what  will  be 
promotive  thereof  The  Augsburg  Confession,  while  it  recognizes 
and  vindicates  the  rights  of  the  "  Churches,"  nowhere  advocated 
their  isolation  and  independence,  and  in  the  very  fact  of  the  pre- 
sentation of  that  great  Confession,  which  Dr.  SchafT  pronounced 
"  the  most  Churchly,  the  most  Catholic,  the  most  conservative 
creed  of  Protestantism,"  do  we  find,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  a  desire  for  the  co-operation  of  the  "Churches" 
in  promoting  the  "  true  unity  of  the  Church."  Thus  it  is  easy 
to  infer  from  what  has  been  stated  in  the  best  accredited  writings 
of  our  Church,  that  the  power  of  judging  in  certain  matters  re- 
sides with  the  Church,  all  things,  of  course,  being  decided  accord- 
ing to  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  in  subjection  thereunto,  and  that 
the  judgments  of  Councils  or  Synods,  properly  set  forth,  are  the 
judgments  of  the  Church,  Thus,  too,  while  the  congregation 
governs  itself,  it  is  to  remember  that  it  is  not  the  whole  Church, 
but  merely  a  part  of  it,  and  that  it  should  be  content  to  live  in 
fellowship  and  communion  with  other  congregations  holding  the 
same  faith,  and  strive  to  promote  the  unity  of  the  Church  accord- 
ing to  the  wholesome  principle  that  "  unto  the  true  unity  of  the 
Churcli,  it  is  sufficient  to  agree  concerning  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  adu)inistration  of  the  sacraments.  Nor  is  it  neces- 
sary that  human  traditions,  rites  or  ceremonies  instituted  by  men 
should  be  alike  everywhere." 

Thus  do  the  confessional  writings  of  the  Lutheran  Cliurch 
guard  the  rights  of  the  individual  believer  and  of  tlie  congrega- 
tion ;  point  out  the  true  way  of  unity  and  co-operation,  for  such 
as  hold  fast  to  the  same  apprehension  of  the  truths  of  the  gospel, 
and  in  some  measure  outline  the  scope  and  limitations  of  church 
authority. 

The  principles  I  have  thus  stated  as  based  upon  the  confes- 


124  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

sional   writings  of  our   Church    ajiply  to  the   authority  of  the 
Churcli  ill  relation  at  once  to  doctrine,  worship  and  discipline. 

1.  The  Church  has  authority  to  teach.  The  Head  of  the 
Church  having  pruiuistd  the  Spirit  to  lead  His  people  into  the 
whole  truth,  there  is  reason  to  trust  not  only  that  they  shall  be 
kept  from  falling  into  fatal  error,  but  that  from  age  to  age  they 
shall  be  led  forward  into  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  the  truth 
once  for  all  delivered  unto  the  saints.  In  matters  of  faith  great 
deference  is,  therefore,  due  to  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the 
Church.  But  authority  in  this  high  function  belongs  to  the 
Church  only  as  the  interpreter  of  God's  written  Word.  She  must 
be  able  to  adduce  the  warrant  of  Holy  Scripture  for  the  every 
article  of  her  teaching,  else  it  has  no  claim  to  be  received  as  the 
Word  of  God.  Whenever  the  teaching  of  the  Church  contra- 
dicts or  goes  beyond  the  teachings  of  Christ,  it  may  be  rejected 
in  all  good  conscience. 

2.  The  Church  has  authority  to  see  that  the  worship  of  God 
is  duly  celebrated.  In  this  also,  as  in  teaching,  her  authority  is 
limited  to  the  function  of  interpreting  and  giving  effect  to  the 
directions  given  by  Christ.  Her  commission  is  to  make  disciples 
of  all  nations,  and  then  to  "  teach  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  Christ  commanded."  She  has  no  power  to  frame 
new  and  mandatory  ordinances  of  worship.  She  may  construct 
liturgies  and  hymn  books  for  the  decent,  orderly,  historical  and 
edifying  conduct  of  the  ordinances  once  for  all  appointed  by  the 
Lord ;  but  further  than  that  her  commission  does  not  warrant 
her  to  go.  The  Church  is  wise  in  recommending  such  adjuncts 
of  well-ordered  and  becoming  worship;  but  if  she  presumes  to 
lay  down  inflexible  laws  regarding  the  service  of  God,  which  go 
beyond  or  contradict  the  appc^intments  made  by  Christ  in  the 
Scriptures,  the  people  are  not  bound  to  obey. 

3.  The  Church  has  authority  to  exercise  discipline.  To  the 
Church,  to  the  body  of  believers,  has  been  given  the  "  jjowcr  of  the 
keys,"  and  the  Church  in  its  own  constituted  ways,  has  the  warrant 
to  open  and  shut,  to  bind  and  loose — to  admit  into  and  to  ex- 
clude from  its  communion.  But  here  also  authority  is  limited. 
The  "power  of  the  keys,"  as  we  have  seen,  is  strictly  ministerial, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  125 

and  Avhen  tlirough  the  ignorance  or  malice  of  those  to  whom  it 
has  fallen  to  judge  his  case,  a  man  is  unjustly  cast  out  of  the 
communion  of  the  Church,  the  uurighteous  sentence  will  not  be 
ratified  in  heaven.  In  every  case  there  lies  open  to  conscience 
the  riglit  of  appeal  from  the  judgment  of  men  to  the  judgment 
of  God. 

I  have  passed  over  thus  hastily  these  three  functions  of  the 
Church  in  the  legitimate  exercise  of  its  authority,  and  come  to 
the  most  important  phase  of  our  subject. 

4.  It  comes  within  the  scope  and  limitations  of  the  Church's 
authority  to  impose  certain  restrictions  upon  its  accredited  and 
authorized  teachers. 

A  very  high  and  sacred  function  is  assigned  by  the  Head  of 
the  Church  to  His  truth,  the  belief  of  which  is  said  to  be  the 
condition  and  effectual  agency  of  sanctification  and  attainment  of 
eternal  life.  We  are,  therefore,  warranted  in  assuming  that  a 
basis  of  theological  opinions,  made  up  of  the  great  truths  and 
doctrines  of  the  Bible,  unmixed  with  fatal  misbeliefs,  set  forth  in 
plain  language,  is  necessary  to  the  best  interests  of  the  Church, 
and  to  a  not  inconsiderable  extent,  to  the  religious  life  of  the 
individual.  And  since  religion  as  embodied  in  church  life  is 
largely  communistic,  having  very  large  interests  common  to  the 
whole  body,  a  recognized  consensus  of  belief  is  a  condition 
requisite  to  the  unity  and  welfare  of  the  whole  body.  In  religion 
and  morals  we  have  no  possible  solution  for  the  problems  of  the 
present,  save  as  it  is  furnished  by  the  one  light  that  comes  to  us 
from  the  far-off  sunrise  of  Judea.  But  this  we  can  do  and  should 
do,  to  so  shape  our  studies  of  the  Christian  past  as  to  give  them 
a  more  vital  hold  upon  the  difficulties  of  the  present.  Our  hold- 
ing fast  to  the  treasures  and  light  of  the  past  need  not  make  us 
unmindful  of  the  law  of  adaptability  in  the  present.  One  of  the 
best  accredited  scholars  of  our  Church  Dr.  Henry  Jacobs,  has 
said — vide  Preface  to  "  Elements  of  Religion  " — "  The  matter 
remains  permanent,  but  the  form  changes  not  only  with  the 
language,  but  with  the  age,  the  currents  of  thought  and  the 
diverse  classes  of  errors  and  attacks  that  succeed  one  another 
with  great  rapidity.  We  nmst  speak  the  language  of  the  time 
and  place  where  Providence  has  placed  us." 


126  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

The  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  anticipated  a  growth  of 
Christian  theology  and  ethics  beyond  the  elementary  principles. 
He  gave  an  example  of  such  development,  normal  as  far  as  it 
went,  for  all  subsequent  times,  but  not  precluding  a  further 
advance  in  the  same  direction.  He  was  resolved  not  to  know 
anything  among  the  Corinthians  except  Christ  and  Him  crucified, 
and  his  declared  purpose  has  been  held  up  a  myriad  of  times  as 
an  example  and  warning  to  the  teachers  of  religion  against  med- 
dling with  anything  but  what  is  alleged  to  be  the  "  simple  gospel," 
and  as  a  solemn  admonition  against  the  delusions  and  dangers 
of  church  creeds  and  standards  of  belief,  to  which  accredited 
teachers  of  the  Church  are  expected  to  express  their  assent. 
But  it  is  forgotten  that  St.  Paul  goes  on  to  say  that  he  had  dealt 
with  the  converts  at  Corinth  as  babes  in  the  faith,  and  not  as  full- 
grown  believers,  among  which  latter  class  he  had  a  wisdom  to 
impart,  a  philosophy  or  theology,  a  more  full  and  rounded  expo- 
sition of  Christian  doctrine,  to  impart. 

A  firm  grasp  of  the  great  central  truth  of  redemption  by  Christ 
crucified,  resurgent,  and  reigning,  will  dispose  a  man  to  take  a 
fair  view, — neither  blindly  conservative  nor  rashly  hospitable, — 
of  modifications  of  religious  thought,  and  of  amendments  eitlier 
in  foiin  or  contents  of  the  accredited  symbols  of  the  Church.  Ac- 
cordingly that  the  Church  should  insist  upon  her  public  teachers 
being  held  responsible  to  her  apprehension  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel  as  expressed  in  her  creeds,  is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  any 
desire  to  stagnate  the  intellect  of  the  Church. 

Free  thinking  in  religion  is  not  necessarily  lawless  thinking. 
There  is  always  a  place  for  the  Church's  authority  in  the  educa- 
tion and  direction  of  both  opinion  and  conduct,  even  though  it 
shall  never  again  swa)'  men's  minds  as  it  did  from  the  tenth  to 
the  sixteenth  century.  According  to  some  men's  individualistic 
standards  of  thinking  Lutlier  unchained  an  unruly  spirit  when 
he  began  to  assert  the  right  of  "private  judgment."  But  such 
always  forget  tliat  he  and  his  coadjutors  sought  to  restrain  private 
judgment  within  the  bounds  of  a  reasonable  liberty.  To  assert 
the  right  of  private  judgment  is  not  to  assert  the  right  of  putting 
out  upon  religious  seas  without  chart  or  compass  to  guide  us  on 
"our  dim  and  perilous  way." 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  127 

Liberty  is  conceived  by  some  men  as  the  right  to  think  and  do 
as  one  pleases.  There  can  be  no  broader  definition  than  tliis,  and 
probably  no  man  on  earth  enjoys  such  liberty.  Possibly  during 
that  brief  period  in  which  the  first  man  stood  alone  lie  enjoyed 
the  liberty  of  thinking  and  doing  as  he  pleased,  and  this  because 
he  thought  and  pleased  to  do  right.  And  it  may  be  that  his  help- 
meet so  long  as  she  was  thus  minded  imposed  no  felt  restrictions 
upon  him ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  social  organism  into  which  men 
are  now  born  does  lay  rightful  restraints  upon  every  man's  liberty: 

"  Yet  know  withal, 
Since  thy  original  lapse,  true  liberty 
Is  lost,  which  always  with  right  reason  dwells." 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  lawless  liberty;  a  liberty  which  does 
not  acknowledge  its  limitations,  and  any  attempt  to  break  over 
such  proper  restrictions  is  regarded  by  all  right-minded  men  as 
perilous  alike  to  life,  property  and  sound  morals. 

We  cannot  believe  what  we  please  because  always  limited  by 
the  laws  of  thought  and  evidence.  No  man  liveth  unto  himself 
in  the  trades,  the  schools  or  in  the  learned  professions.  We  can- 
not divorce  liberty  from  history  and  law,  for  this  is  to  break  up 
both  continuity  and  order,  to  hush  the  music  of  the  spheres  and 
to  institute  chaos.  To  divest  liberty  of  certain  reigning  principles 
is  to  institute  anarchy  among  men.  There  can  be  no  absolute 
liberty  until  each  soul  has  a  world  unto  itself,  and  even  then  it 
will  forever  hold  that  "true  liberty  always  with  right  reason 
dwells." 

In  the  present  unsettled  condition  of  the  public  mind  there  is 
no  danger  of  such  a  preaching  and  teaching  of  authority  in  the 
Church  as  may  give  rise  to  a  suspicion  that  the  faith  of  the  Church 
rests  upon  nothing  deejier  than  authority. 

In  view  of  these  principles  I  come  to  say  that  the  Church  has 
the  right  to  impose  certain  confessional  limitations  upon  her 
authorized  teachers.  The  Reformation  guaranteed  to  every  man 
the  right  to  take  the  Word  of  God  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of 
faith  and  practice,  and  to  apply  that  standard  as  the  test  of  the 
truth.     Every  man  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand  may,  at  his  own 


128  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

peril,  decide  for  himself  wliat  that  Bible  teaches,  and  therefore 
what  he  ought  to  believe  and  what  he  ought  to  do.  If  as  a 
result  of  his  reading  and  study,  aided  by  such  helps  as  he  may 
have  at  his  commaud,  he  becomes  a  Roman  Catholic  or  a  Pro- 
testant, or  decides  in  favor  of  any  one  of  the  denominations  of 
Protestantism,  or  if  he  concludes  his  inquiries  with  the  result  of 
his  having  become  an  agnostic,  or  an  atheist,  nevertheless  he 
should  be  entirely  free  from  any  sort  of  coercion,  such  as  was 
attempted  upon  our  Lutheran  fathers  in  the  New  Netherlands  in 
the  seventeenth  century ;  or  that  of  the  grim  Puritan  snatching 
the  prayer-book  from  the  hand  of  the  churchman  and  the  stiff 
chui'chman  compelling  the  Puritan  to  read  it;  or  of  the  founders 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  driving  out  the  Quakers  and  forcing 
Roger  Williams  to  betake  himself  to  the  woods,  where  for  four- 
teen Aveeks  he  knew  not  "what  bread  or  bed  did  mean."  Luther, 
employing  the  right  of  private  judgment  with  entire  freedom, 
freely  conceded  it  to  others,  for  he  it  was  who  said  :  "  The  pen, 
not  the  fire,  is  to  put  down  heretics.  The  hangmen  are  not 
doctors  of  theology.  This  is  not  the  place  for  force.  Not  the 
sword,  but  the  Word,  fits  for  this  battle." 

But  although  this  right  of  private  judgment  is  as  sacred  and 
inalienable  as  the  riglit  to  life  or  liberty,  nevertheless  it  has  its 
wholesome  and  necessary  denominational  limitations.  In  one 
denomination  the  chief  bond  of  union  maybe  a  ritual,  in  another 
a  form  of  government,  and  in  another  a  method  of  doing  its 
practical  work.  In  Lutheranism  neither  a  ritual,  nor  a  form  of 
government,  nor  a  method  of  work  is  the  thing  of  primary  im- 
portance. Its  bond  of  unity  is  a  common  faith  which  has  been 
reached  by  a  devout  and  painntaking  study  of  the  divine  Word, 
accompanied  by  a  free,  untrammcled  exercise  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment.  When  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  in  our 
great  Church  accordingly  is  ordained,  or  a  teacher  is  inducted 
into  his  oHice  in  a  theological  school,  he  voluntarily  takes  an 
obligation  having  all  the  sanctions  of  a  vow  made  before  God 
and  the  Churcli  to  preach  or  teach  according  to  this  faith.  It  is 
to  be  presumed  that  he  has  reached  the  Lutheran  faith  l)y  a  free 
and  devout  study  of  the  Word;  that  it   has  not  been  imposed 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  129 

upon  bis  cuuscieuce  by  uinvilling  constraints — tbat  it  is  no  mat- 
ter of  police  autbority,  but  tbat  be  gbitlly  proclaims  bis  purpose 
to  preacb  or  teacb  it,  because  be  beartily  believes  it  to  be  in 
accord  witb  tbe  sacred  Scriptures.  Tbis  is  a  proper  requirement 
of  the  Church,  and  on  any  other  conditions  he  would  be  rejected 
as  a  teacher  of  theology  or  a  preacher  in  a  distinctly  Lutheran 
Church.  This  is  a  legitimate  limitation,  but  such  an  one  as  does 
not  renounce  tbe  man's  right  of  private  judgment.  Tbat  is  a 
rigiit  which  no  person  should  and  no  self-respecting  person  can 
renounce  without  sacrificing  his  Christian  liberty.  But  the  right 
of  private  judgment  does  not  include  the  right  to  herald  or  teach 
doctrines  inconsistent  with  the  Lutheran  faith  in  Lutheran  pul- 
pits or  chairs  of  theology,  or  for  a  man  to  transcend  tbe  limits 
imposed  by  a  solemn  obligation  voluntarily  assumed.  A  Trini- 
tarian might  become  a  Unitarian,  and  no  Evangelical  Church 
would  oppose  tbe  right  to  make  the  change;  but  that  privilege 
to  thus  change  would  afford  a  man  no  right  to  teach  Unitariauism 
in  evangelical  pulpits  or  schools,  A  Lutbei'an  who  in  the  exercise 
of  his  right  of  private  judgment  has  ceased  to  bold  the  faith  o^ 
bis  Church,  should  practice  sound  ethics  and  withdraw.  To  re- 
main as  a  disturber,  striving  to  substitute  the  conclusions  of  his 
private  judgment  instead  of  the  faith  which  he  has  voluntarily 
promised  to  maintain,  and  which  fiiitb  has  stood  the  test  of  cen- 
turies, tbat  course  seems  to  be  not  only  audacious,  but  likewise 
unethical.  Heresy  is  not  so  great  a  sin  as  dishonesty.  There 
may  be  honest  heresy,  but  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  honest 
dishonesty.  It  is  a  significant  fact,  in  tbe  history  of  our  Church, 
tbat  it  was  rationalists,  such  men  as  Semler  and  Babrdt,  AVeg- 
schtider  and  Bret?cbneider,  who  first  invented  or  acted  upon  tbe 
theory  that  a  man  could  be  a  good  Lutheran  and  at  tbe  same 
time  assail  the  doctrines  of  the  Church. 

It  comes  within  tbe  scope  of  church  autbority  also  that  it 
require  at  tbe  bands  of  its  teachers  a  particular  kind  of  creed 
subscription.  "Symbols  are  not  to  be  subscribed  until,  as  the 
result  of  their  careful  study  and  comparison  with  God's  Word, 
they  are  recognized  and  cheerfully  declared  to  be  drawn  from 
the  pure  fountains  of  Israel.  This  is  a  quia  subscription  [vide 
9 


130  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GEKERAL  CONFERENCE. 

"  Book  of  Concord,"  Vol.  II,  p.  13,  Jacobs]."  Ou  the  other  hand 
we  call  it  a  quaienus  subscription  when  a  confession  is  subscribed 
to  in  this  way,  "in  so  far  as  it  is  in  accord  with  the  Bible."  The 
Church  has  the  right  to  require  a  quia  subscription — that  is, 
"because  the  teachings  of  the  Church  agree  with  the  Scriptures," 
and  not  the  quaienus,  because  this  latter  is  evasive.  Men  hold- 
ing the  most  diverse  views  might  all  subscribe  to  the  same  confes- 
sions, in  this  way,  which  would  allow  all  sorts  of  latitudinarianism 
and  dissension.  We  Lutherans  subscribe  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession because  we  believe,  as  the  Confession  itself  says,  that  these 
doctrines  are  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  and  all  that  we  as  Luther- 
ans ask  is  that  if  a  man's  private  judgment  of  the  Word  of  God 
does  not  ^make  him  believe  the  doctrines  witnessed  to  in  this 
great  Confession,  that  he  should  not  pretend  to  be  a  Lutheran  and 
use  the  splendid  name  of  a  great  Church  as  his  shelter  in  under- 
mining the  faith  of  such  as  are  committed  to  her  spiritual  care. 

It  cannot  be  known  that  we  believe  in  accordance  with  the 
Bible  until  we  declare  or  confess  Avhat  we  believe.  No  faith  is 
intelligently  formed  until  we  are  able  to  say  what  that  faith  is, 
and  unless  we  do  say  we  cau  never  be  known  as  partakers  in  the 
community  of  believers.  Since  all  churches  and  sects  appeal  to 
the  Bible  and  profess  to  accept  its  teachings,  it  becomes  hypo- 
thetically  necessary  for  each  community  of  believers  holding  to  a 
common  apprehension  of  the  faith  to  determine  the  sense  in 
which  it  understands  the  Bible.  Denominational  honesty  re- 
quires on  the  one  hand  that  a  church  make  a  clear,  unambiguous 
statement  of  its  beliefs,  and  on  the  other  an  unequivocal  and 
sincere  assent  upon  the  part  of  authorized  teachers,  without  men- 
tal reservation  and  uncertainty. 

What  .John  Milton  says  of  a  good  book,  that  it  is  "the  life 
blood  of  a  master-spirit,"  is  much  more  true  of  a  well-articulated 
creed  which  has  been  elaborated  by  master-spirits  through  study  of 
the  Scriptures,  Christian  exi)enence,  the  conflicts  of  the  faith, 
the  battles  for  the  ti'uth  and  the  sufferings  of  martyrs.  Next  to 
the  Bible  there  is  no  book  so  full  of  theology,  of  church  history 
and  Christian  life  as  Schaff  's  "  Creeds  of  Christendom."  The 
popular  objections  against  the  church  requirement  of  an  ex-animo 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  131 

subscription  to  its  creed,  are  all  founded  either  upon  invincible 
ignorance  as  to  the  true  design  and  use  of  a  creed,  or  upon  that 
presumptuous  individualism  tliat  says,  "I  am  wiser  than  the 
ancients,"  and  which  sets  up  its  own  private  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  its  unwritten  creed,  as  the  infallible  standard  of 
truth. 

At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  Church  has  it  been  more  ur- 
gent for  the  Church  to  assert  her  authority  in  this  important 
matter  of  creed  subscription.  Our  generation  is  inflated  and 
self-asserting.  It  has  done  a  great  deal,  and  it  means  that  all 
the  posterities  shall  know  it.  Intellectually  and  religiously  con- 
sidered it  has  far  more  surface  than  depth  of  keel.  It  is  many- 
sided,  but  in  much  of  its  religions  life  is  disinclined  to  thorough- 
ness. It  will  not  bear  much  of  what  Master  Kidley  called  "deep 
spading,"  nor  further  on  what  Mnster  Latimer  called  "  weeding" 
for  the  sake  of  a  better  crop.  It  is  a  time  when  the  old  words 
are  often  so  skillfully  used  that  the  superficial  hearer  thinks  that 
he  is  getting  the  Bible,  and  it  is  only  the  hungry  soul  that  feels 
the  want  of  living  bread,  and  finds  that  some  sophisticated  Ba- 
rabbas  has  been  thrust  upon  it  instead  of  the  Lord  from  heaven, 

"We  have  to  confront  in  the  life  of  the  Church  in  our  time  one 
of  tlie  most  specious  forms  of  religious  tliinking  ever  formulated. 
It  claims  to  be  more  Protestant  and  Evangelical  tlian  the  Re- 
formers themselves,  and  more  Christian  than  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church ;  it  aims  to  increase  personal  piety,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  practical  activities  of  the  Church  on  the  other;  it  has  its 
church  historian  in  Harnack;  its  theologians  in  Kaftan  of  Berlin 
and  Hermann  of  Marburg ;  its  critics  in  Schulz  and  Wendt,  and 
it  asserts  with  euthu.siasni  that  it  stands  in  possession  of  an  en- 
tirely new  method,  whereby  it  can  reach  certainty  of  Christian 
truth,  revolutionize  the  theology  of  the  ages,  and  construct  a  new 
basis  for  Christian  belief  It  has  been  widely  introduced  into 
this  country  and  has  well-nigh  overmastered  in  its  New  England 
home,  the  older  theology  of  Emmons  and  Taylor. 

At  such  a  time  the  Church  may  be  hospitable  no  less  to  all 
truth,  but  it  is  under  special  bonds  to  insist  upon  something  ex- 
plicit in  its  teachings,  and  l)y  wise  legislation  authoritatively  in 


132  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  name  of  the  Church,  to  set  due  metes  and  bounds  for  such 
as  seek  to  become  her  teachers. 

Surely  no  right-thinking  reh'gionist  ■will  advise  us  at  such  a 
time  as  this  to  give  less  attention  to  the  past  than  to  the  ])resent. 
We  should  be  men  of  understanding,  discerning  the  signs  of  the 
times  and  taking  frequent  soundings  in  the  cross-currents  of 
living  thought;  but  the  fact  remains  that  what  is  sound  and  safe 
in  religion  has  not  only  its  roots,  but  in  many  things  its  matured 
growths  in  the  past.  The  faith  of  the  Church  was  once  for  all 
delivered  unto  the  Church.  As  it  came  to  us  we  are  to  hand  it  on. 
It  can  gain  nothing  in  its  substance,  and  it  must  lose  nothing  in 
our  keeping.  It  enters  the  life  of  this  age  as  it  entered  the  life 
of  the  centuries  behind  us — as  a  finished  force  from  without.  By 
some  of  those  centuries  it  has  been  rent  in  twain,  by  others  sadly 
corrupted  and  obscured,  by  others  restored  to  its  early  purity, 
but  by  none  advanced  beyond  its  primitive  type.  The  matter  is 
unchangeable.  It  is  ours  to  see  that  its  verities  are  maintained 
in  their  integrity. 

THE  SCOPE  AND  LIMITATION  OF  CHURCH  AUTHORITY. 

BY  G.   F.   KROTEL,    D.D.,  LL.D. 

Although  Luther,  in  the  Smalcald  Articles,  says:  "Thank 
God,  to-day  a  child  seven  years  old  knows  what  the  Church  is, 
viz. :  saints,  believers  and  lambs,  who  hear  the  voice  of  their 
Shepherd.  For  the  children  repeat :  '  I  believe  in  one  holy 
(Catholic  or)  Christian  Church,'  "  he,  and  others  in  his  day,  and 
their  successors  down  to  our  own  days,  have  found  it  necessary  to 
write  many  pages  to  show  what  the  Church  is,  in  order  to  dispel 
false  conceptions  of  its  nature  and  functions.  It  is  with  the  doc- 
trine concerning  the  Church,  as  it  is  with  many  other  doctrines, 
although  all  we  know  about  them  is  found  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures :  men  have  difTtred  widely  in  their  inter])retation  of  the 
statements  of  Holy  Writ.  Many  have  undertaken  to  write  the 
Life  of  Christ,  and  while  all  were  absolutely  dependent  for  their 
information  upon  the  New  Testament,  the  portraits  they  have 
printed  have  widely  differed.  All  Ave  know  about  the  Cluiich  is 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  yet  men,  taking  its  statements,  have 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  133 

constructed  theories  of  the  Church  differing  as  widely  as  those 
which  the  Articles  of  Smalcald  opposed  and  those  which  they 
defended. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  theme  :  "The  Scope  and  Limitation  of 
Church  Authority,"  we  propose  to  confine  ourselves  altogether  to 
the  New  Testament,  as  the  only  inspired,  and  therefore  infallible 
source  from  which  we  can  ascertain  what  the  Church  is,  whether 
it  has  any  authority,  and  how  far  that  authority  extends. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Gospel  history,  as  recorded  by  the 
four  Evangelists,  contains  but  two  passages  in  which  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  speaks  of  the  Church,  one  being  in  Matth.  16  :  IS, 
19.  "And  I  say  unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  it.  And  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall 
be  loosed  in  heaven."  The  other  is  in  the  eighteenth  chapter, 
verses  17-20.  "  And  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto 
the  Church :  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  Church,  let  him  be 
unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican.  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed 
in  heaven.  Again  I  say  unto  you,  that  if  two  of  you  shall  agree 
on  earth  as  touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be 
done  for  them  of  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  For  where  two 
or  three  are  gathered  together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them."  Although  these  are  the  only  passages  in  which 
the  Lord  speaks  of  the  Church,  they  are  full  of  meaning,  are  fun- 
damental in  their  character,  are  in  entire  harmony  with  what  we 
read  in  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament,  and  are  further  illumi- 
nated by  what  the  Apostles  said  and  wrote  upon  the  same  sub- 
ject. While  we  listen,  with  the  profoundest  reason,  to  the  words 
which  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  we  do  not  for- 
get that  he  promised  to  His  Apostles  that  Comforter,  "which  is 
the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  name.  He 
will  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your  remem- 
brance, whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you."     Of  this  Comforter, 


134  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

or  Advocate,  or  Paraclete,  He  furthermore  said  :  "  Howbeit,  when 
He,  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth  : 
for  He  shall  not  speak  of  Himself;  but  whatsoever  He  shall 
hear,  that  shall  He  speak :  and  He  will  show  you  things  to 
come.  He  shall  glorify  Me  :  for  he  shall  receive  of  Mine,  and 
shall  show  it  unto  you." 

AVhatever,  therefore,  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles, 
and  the  last  book  of  the  New  Testament  tell  us  about  the  Church, 
is  to  be  received  as  additional  tcachiug,  coming  from  Him  who 
is  the  Builder  aud  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  it  will  be  found 
that  in  all  that  they  have  written  they  are  in  full  accord  with  the 
fundamental  conceptions  set  forth  in  the  two  passages  in  Matthew, 

When  He  says,  "  I  will  build  My  Church,"  He  undoubtedly 
refers  to  that  of  which  St.  Paul  writes  to  the  Ei)he6ians,  "  And 
gave  Him  to  be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is 
His  body,  the  fullness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all ;  "  aud,  using 
another  figure,  "  And  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Apt)S- 
tles  and  Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the  chief  corner- 
stone, in  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together  groweth 
unto  a  holy  temple  of  the  Lord :  in  whom  ye  also  are  builded 
together  for  a  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit."  "  There  is 
one  body  and  one  Spirit,"  and  the  Church  is  the  body  of 
Christ.  "One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism."  "For  the  hus- 
band is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the  Head  of  the 
Church,"  and  therefore  the  "  Church  is  subject  unto  Christ,"  v,ho 
"  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  Himself  for  it."  He  nourisheth 
and  cherislieth  it,  and  the  union  between  Him  aud  his  Church  is 
spoken  of  as  "  a  great  mystery."  He  sanctifies  and  cleanses  it, 
^'  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word,  that  He  might  present 
it  to  Himself  a  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot,  or  wriidde,  or 
any  such  thing;  but  that  it  should  be  holy  aud  without  blemish." 
Such  a  body,  with  such  a  head,  consists  of  living  members  and 
believers,  that  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  for,  as  Paul  writes  to  the 
Romans,  "  Now  if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is 
none  of  His."  When  the  great  Master  Builder  says,  "1  will 
build  My  Church,"  we  may  be  sure  that  He  does  not  build  this 
"spiritual   house,"   except   with   "lively  stones,"  living  stones. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  135 

believers,  built  upou  the  "  chief  corner-stone,  elect,  precious." 
There  is  but  one  such  "spiritual  house,"  one  such  body,  one 
flock  gathered  around  the  good  Sliepherd. 

As  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  and  His  inspired  apostles 
speak  of  this  one  holy  Christian  Church,  extending  all  over  the 
world  and  tliroughout  all  ages,  so  He  and  they  sjteak  of  those 
gatherings  of  believers,  in  His  Name,  for  worship,  for  preaching 
and  for  hearing  His  word,  and  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments instituted  by  Him,  by  the  same  name — "Church."  "Tell 
it  unto  tiie  Church,"  not  unto  that  vast  body  of  believers  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  but  to  that  smaller  part  of  it  which  assembles  in 
a  particular  place,  and  to  which  you  and  your  oflending  brother 
belong.  That  small  body  is  also  called  the  Church,  for  it  has  the 
same  Head,  Christ,  is  animated  by  the  same  Spirit,  has  the  same 
Gospel  and  sacraments,  and  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
in  His  Name,  He  has  promised  to  be  in  the  midst  of  them. 

Again  and  again  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  speak  of  such 
churches,  churches  in  the  provinces  and  cities,  and  "  the  Church 
that  is  in  the  house,"  as  in  the  house  of  "  Priscilla  and  Aquila," 
as  well  as  in  others.  The  Church  assembled  in  such  a  house 
was  a  true  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Lord  declared,  "  I  will 
build  my  Church,"  and  he  has  kept  His  word.  He  gathered 
the  first  stones,  and  laid  the  "foundation  of  the  apostles  and 
prophets,"  He  himself  being  the  cliief  corner-stone,  so  that  no 
matter  how  we  may  interpret  the  words  spoken  to  Peter,  "and 
upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church,"  it  must  forever  remain 
true  that  He  himself  is  the  only  Rock, — "the  chief  corner-stone," 
"  for  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  tlian  that  is  laid,  which  is 
Jesus  Christ,"  "  the  living  stone,  disallowed  indeed  of  men,  but 
chosen  of  God,  and  precious." 

He  called  the  first  disciples,  and  by  the  word  of  which  He 
himself  said :  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit, 
and  they  are  life."  But  He  also  employed  His  disciples  to  be 
"  workers  together  with  Him,"  to  call  men  to  the  great  supper? 
and  to  the  marriage,  and  to  serve  as  builders.  Paul  says,  "Ac- 
cording to  the  grace  of  God  which  is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise 
master-builder,  I  have  laid  the  foundation,  and  another  buildeth 


136  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

thereupon."  At  the  close  of  the  chapter  that  tells  the  story  of 
the  Day  of  Pentecost,  we  read,  "  And  the  Lord  added  to  the 
Church  daily  such  as  should  be  saved."  He  himself  had  gathered 
the  nucleus  of  the  Church  before  that  day,  on  which  "  about 
three  thousand  souls  were  added  unto  them,"  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Peter,  and  to  these  others  were  added,  by  the  same 
Lord,  through  human  instrumentality. 

Nevertheless,  although  the  Lord  builds  the  Church,  and  calls 
men  through  the  Gospel,  and  there  appeared  among  men  a  body 
called  the  Church,  He  distinctly  foreshadowed  the  sad  fact  that 
there  would  be  found  in  it  those  who  were  not  true  believers,  nor 
His  sheep,  nor  living  stones.  The  seed  is  the  Word  of  God> 
which  He  and  all  His  co-workers  sowed  in  that  great  field — the 
world.  "  The  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom  ;  but 
the  tares  are  the  children  of  the  wicked  one ;  the  enemy  that 
sowed  them  is  the  devil."  Judas,  though  called  by  Him,  allowed 
Satan  to  enter  his  heart ;  Ananias,  Sapphira  and  other  unworthy 
ones  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  were  members  of  the 
Church,  but,  for  all  that,  were  not  members  of  His  body.  They 
belonged  to  the  class  of  which  He  said  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount :  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that 
day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  name  ?  and  in 
Thy  name  have  cast  out  devils  ?  and  in  Thy  name  done  many 
wonderful  works?  And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never 
knew  you  :  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity." 

And  yet,  altliough  such  were  found  among  those  who  professed 
to  be  followers  of  Christ,  the  apostles  addressed  their  epistles  to 
the  bodies  to  which  they  belonged,  as  to  churches  of  Christ. 

Our  theme  takes  it  for  granted  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
Church  autlioriiy.  Authority  means  "the  right  to  command,  and 
to  enforce  obedience."  If  the  Church  is  a  body,  it  is  subject  to 
tlie  laws  upon  which  the  existence  and  welfare  of  a  body  depends. 
There  cannot  be  an  organization  witliout  law  and  order.  There 
cannot  be  a  state  without  the  observance  of  law,  and  some 
authority  to  enforce  it.     "  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  137 

God,"  who  is  the  Creator,  Preserver  aud  Supreme  Ruler  of  the 
Universe.  It  could  not  continue  to  exist  without  submission  to 
the  authority  of  Him  who  is  its  author. 

Paul  says  to  wives,  "  The  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even 
as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  Church,  therefore  as  the  Church  is 
subject  unto  Christ ;  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  m 
every  thing." 

He  who  built  and  builds  the  Church  exercises  supreme  author- 
ity over  it.  His  word  is  its  law ;  His  Spirit  enlightens,  guides, 
directs  aud  restrains  it.  His  Word  spoken  by  Himself,  and 
recorded  by  His  chosen  witnesfces,  the  inspired  evangelists  and 
apostles,  is  her  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  When  visi- 
bly present  with  His  followers.  Pie  said,  "  Ye  call  me  IMaster  and 
Lord :  and  ye  say  well ;  for  so  I  am."  And  His  word  was  their 
highest  authority,  from  which  there  was  no  appeal. 

The  i)eople  who  heard  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  were  astonished 
at  His  doctrine,  "  for  He  taught  them  as  one  having  authority," 
and  His  chosen  apostles  and  other  disciples  received  the  same 
impression,  only  more  profoundly.  He  gave  them  authority,  in 
certain  directions,  before  His  ascension,  and  when  this  was  about 
to  take  place,  and  they  were  to  receive  their  final  commission,  he 
said,  "All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Go 
ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you  : 
and  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
Amen." 

More  than  once  the  chosen  twelve  disputed  among  themselves 
as  to  their  rank  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  on  one  occasion  the 
sons  of  Zebedee,  and  their  mother,  made  the  request  that  one  son 
might  sit  on  the  Lord's  right  hand,  and  the  other  on  His  left,  in 
His  kingdom.  After  His  reply,  the  Lord  said  to  the  other  apos- 
tles, who  "  were  moved  with  indignation  againbt  the  two  breth- 
ren;"  "Ye  know  that  the  princes  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  domin- 
ion over  them,  aud  they  that  are  great  exercise  authority  upon 
them.  But  it  shall  not  be  so  among  you  :  but  whosoever  will  be 
great  among  ycu,  let  him  be  your  minister :  and  whosoever  will 


138  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

be  chief  among  you,  let  liim  be  your  servant :  even  as  the  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give 
his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

When  John  and  James  and  their  mother  made  the  request, 
they  evidently  did  not  dream  that  their  Master,  when  He  said  to 
Peter,  "Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  'will  build  my 
church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  And 
I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  and 
whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ; 
and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in 
heaven,"  thereby  conferred  upon  him  such  a  primacy  and  head- 
ship, as  men  subsequently  were  led  to  believe  that  he  had.  Peter 
himself  could  not  have  understood  them  as  committing  something 
to  him  which  was  not  committed  to  his  fellow-apostles,  especially 
when  he  heard  what  the  Lord  said  in  Matt.  18  :  17-20  ;  and  saw 
how  the  risen  Lord  breathed  on  them  as  well  as  on  him,  and 
said  unto  them  as  well  as  to  him  :  "  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost : 
whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and 
whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained." 

Nothing  is  clearer  from  the  Acts  and  Epistles  than  that  Peter 
never  arrogated  to  himself  such  a  headship  and  authority,  and 
that  neither  the  other  apostles  nor  the  churches,  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West,  recognized  any  such  supreme  authority.  Although 
he  seemed  to  be  recognized  as,  in  a  measure,  primus  inter  pares, 
he  never  claimed  or  exercised  such  authority  as  that  which  has 
been  claimed  for  his  boasted  successors.  In  the  meeting,  composed 
of  "al)ont  a  hundred  and  twenty"  disciples,  after  the  Lord's  as- 
cension, it  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  Peter  to  appoint  an 
apostle  to  fill  the  vacant  seat  of  Judas  Iscariot.  Neither  he  nor 
the  other  apostles  had  anything  to  do  with  the  appointment  of 
Paul  to  the  apostleship.  Peter  did  not  preside  at  the  council  at 
Jerusalem  ;  and  at  Antioch,  Paul,  who  was  not  one  of  the  origi- 
nal twelve,  "withstood  him  to  his  face,  because  he  was  to  be 
blamed,"  and  Peter  submitted  to  it. 

If  the  New  Testament  teaches  anything  very  clearly,  it  is,  that 
the  Great  Head  of  the  Church  has  not  given  supreme  authority 
in  His  Church  to  any  one  man,  and  that  the  monarchical  princi- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  139 

pie,  as  far  as  the  Church  is  coucerned,  is  altogether  anti-Scrip- 
tural. The  apostles  and  first  Christians  never  forgot  the  words 
of  the  Saviour :  "  For  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ ;  and  all 
ye  are  brethren."  Paul  tells  the  Galatians,  "  Neither  went  I  up 
to  Jerusalem  to  them  which  were  apostles  before  me  :  then  after 
three  years  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  see  Peter,  and  abode  with 
him  fifteen  days.  But  other  of  the  apostles  saw  I  none,  save 
James  the  Lord's  brother."  And  in  the  next  chapter  he  speaks 
of  "James,  Cephas  and  John,  who  seemed  to  be  pillars,  as  giving 
to  him  and  Barnabas  the  right  hands  of  fellowship,"  actually 
assigning  to  Peter's  name  the  second  place.  No  doubt  the  Lord 
gave  the  apostles  certain  authority  in  the  Church,  such  as  is 
clearly  indicated  in  the  words  spoken  to  them,  and  already 
referred  to.  The  Lord  "gave  some  apostles,  and  some  prophets, 
and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors  and  teachers,  for  the  per- 
fecting of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edify- 
ing of  the  body  of  Christ."  And  the  same  Paul,  writing  to  the 
Corinthians,  tells  them,  "  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
members  in  particular,"  and  then  adds:  "And  God  hath  set 
some  in  the  Church,  first  apostles,  secondarily  prophets,  thirdly 
teachers  "—and  afterwards  asks:  "Are  all  apostles?  are  all 
prophets?  are  all  teachers ? "  etc. 

The  Apostles  were  Christ's  chosen  witnesses  and  preachers  of 
the  Gospel.  They  were  the  founders,  teachers,  and  spiritual 
guides  and  rulers  of  the  Church,  but  they  exercised  their  authority 
in  the  spirit  of  Peter's  words,  in  his  Second  Epistle :  "  The  elders 
which  are  among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  elder,  and  a  wit- 
ness of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  also  a  partaker  of  the  glory 
that  shall  be  revealed,  feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you, 
taking  the  oversight  thereof,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly ; 
not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind  ;  neither  as  being  lords 
over  God's  heritage,  but  being  ensamples  to  the  flock."  Paul 
writes  to  the  Corintliians  of  "the  power  which  the  Lord  hath 
given  me  to  edification,  and  not  to  destruction,"  and  in  several 
other  places  refers  to  the  "  authority  "  which  the  Lord  had  given. 
He  exercised  this  authority  in  preaching  the  Gospel,  in  the 
organization  of  churches,  in  the  administration  of  discipline,  and 


140  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

in  the  introduction  of  certain  rules  and  observances  in  the 
churches,  on  the  principle  that  "  God  is  not  the  author  of  con- 
fusion, but  of  peace,  as  in  all  churches  of  the  saints,"  wherefore  he 
admonishes  them,  "Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order." 

And  yet  an  examination  of  the  New  Testament  shows  how  far 
the  apostles  were  from  exercising  their  authority  as  if  they  were 
"  lords  over  God's  heritage,"  and  how  careful  they  were  to  recog- 
nize the  rights  of  the  congregations  and  individuals.  Peter 
neither  appointed  a  successor  to  Judas,  nor  did  he  urge  the  apos- 
tolic college  to  do  so.  He  proposed  his  plan  to  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty,  and  when  two  persons  were  designated  or  nominated, 
wc  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  whole  assembly  took 
part  in  the  proceedings.  When  it  became  necessary  to  silence 
the  "  murmuring  of  the  Grecians  against  the  Hebrews,  because 
their  widows  were  neglected  in  the  daily  distribution,"  "the 
tw^elve  called  the  multitude  of  the  disciples  unto  them,"  and  said, 
"  Brethren,  look  ye  out  among  you  seven  men  of  honest  report,  full 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  wisdom,  whom  we  many  appoint  over  this 
business."  "  And  the  saying  pleased  the  whole  multitude ;  and 
they  chose "  the  seven  men,  generally  called  deacons,  "  whom 
they  set  before  the  apostles ;  and  when  they  had  prayed,  they 
laid  their  hands  on  them."  Peter  did  not  appoint  them,  nor  was 
it  done  by  the  twelve ;  but  the  congregation  elected  them,  and 
then  the  apostles,  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  hands,  appointed 
them  "  over  this  business." 

We  do  not  know  when  the  elders  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem, 
mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  Acts  10  :  30,  were  appointed,  but 
surely  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose,  that  the  manner  of  their 
appointment  was  similar  to  that  of  the  seven  (deacons)  spoken 
of  in  Acts  6.  When  we  read,  in  chapter  14  of  the  same  book, 
that  Paul  and  Barnabas  "  ordained  them  elders  in  every  church," 
is  it  not  natural  to  infer  that  they  did  so  after  the  example  set 
by  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem?  And  when  Paul  wrote  to  Titus: 
"For  this  caus.e  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  tbou  shouldest  set  in 
order  the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordained  elders  in  every 
city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee,"  we  are  at  liberty  to  take  it  for 
granted  that  Titus  pursued  the  same  course. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  141 

"When  a  question  concerning  fundamental  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice arose  in  Antioch,  and  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  not  able  to 
settle  it,  that  congregation  resolved  "  that  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
and  certain  otlier  of  thtm,  should  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  unto  the 
apostles  and  elders  about  this  question,"  "  and  being  brought  on 
their  way  by  the  Church,"  and  arriving  in  Jerusalem,  "  they 
■were  received  of  the  Church,  und  of  the  apostles  and  elders,  and 
they  declared  all  things  that  God  had  done  with  thtm."  We 
read  further  that  "  the  apostles  and  elders  came  together  for  to 
consider  of  this  matter,"  and  a  little  later  that  "  all  the  multi- 
tude kept  silence,  and  gave  audience  to  Barnabas  and  Paul." 
After  James  had  made  his  addre;=s  and  presented  his  "sentence," 
the  record  goes  on  :  "  Then  pleased  it  the  apostles  and  elders, 
with  the  whole  church,  to  send  chosen  men  of  their  company  to 
Antioch  with  Paul  and  Barnabas ;  "  and  in  the  letter  which 
these  messengers  were  to  carry  to  Antioch,  it  was  written  :  "  The 
apostles  and  elders  and  brethren  send  greeting  unto  the  brethren 
which  are  of  the  Gentiles  in  Antioch,  and  Syria  and  Cilicia." 

A  transaction  like  this  gives  us  an  admirable  insight  into  the 
manner  in  which  the  apostles  exercised  their  authority,  in  consul- 
tation with  the  elders  and  the  congregation, — a  manner  as  far 
removed  from  prelatical  and  priestly  assumption  and  arrogance, 
as  it  is  possible  to  conceive. 

In  that  remarkable  case,  referred  to  in  I  Cor.  5,  in  which  Paul 
gave  the  most  striking  manifestation  of  his  apostolic  authority,  in 
an  act  of  severe  discipline,  he  acted  in  cooperation  with  the 
Church  at  Corinth,  fully  recognizing  not  only  their  duty,  but  their 
rights  in  the  case. 

Although  the  apostles  were  the  divinely  chosen  teachers  and 
guides  of  the  churches,  they  never  organized  them  into  any  eccle- 
siastical body,  over  which  they  ruled,  or  a  representative  body 
over  which  they,  or  one  of  their  number,  presided.  There  was 
no  priestly  or  hierarchical  rule,  as  far  as  they  were  concerned. 
They  knew  of  "  the  Church  "  throughout  the  world,  and  of  "  the 
churches  of  Galatia,"  and  other  provinces,  countries  and  cities, 
but  they  knew  nothing  of  a  church  of  a  particular  province  or 
diocese.     There  was  the  Church,  embracing  all  believers,  and  the 


142  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

churches,  scattered  over  many  lands.  They  strove  to  make  them 
feel  that  all  of  them  were  churches  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  told 
them  what  Paul  wrote  to  the  Ephesians :  "  There  is  one  body, 
and  one  Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling ; 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who 
is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  you  all."  For  this  reason 
they  were  urged  "  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace."  Paul  could  appeal  to  the  Corinthians  that  he  and  all  the 
apostles  preached  the  same  doctrines,  and  administered  the  same 
sacraments.  In  order  to  keep  up  the  feeling  of  unity  and  fellow- 
ship, he  and  the  other  apostles  visited  them  as  often  as  they  could  ; 
sent  to  them  their  pupils,  assistants  and  fellow-laborers;  addressed 
to  them  epistles,  full  of  instruction,  encouragement,  warning, 
reproof  and  consolation,  and  did  what  they  could  to  introduce, 
and  keep  alive  in  every  congregation  certain  usages  peculiar  to  the 
first  Christian  churches.  In  this  way,  without  any  general  organi- 
zation and  without  the  convocation  of  representatives  of  the 
churches  in  councils  or  synods,  the  churches  and  the  Church 
flourished  during  the  time  covered  by  the  New  Testament  record. 
We  receive  the  impression  that  the  churches  governed  themselves 
in  accordance  with  the  doctrines,  principles,  regulations  and  usages 
given  to  them  by  the  apostles.  If  they  needed  instruction,  the 
apostles  were  ready  to  give  it,  and  if  they  departed  in  any  par- 
ticular from  apostolic  teaching  and  practice,  the  apostles  would 
call  them  to  order  and  correct  the  evil. 

The  germinal  word  of  the  Lord,  "  tell  it  unto  the  church," 
was  fully  understood  and  practiced,  and  each  church  was  called 
upon  to  watch  over  its  own  household,  to  provide  for  pure  preach- 
ing, the  right  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  an  edifying 
common  worship,  exercise  of  discijiline  and  the  observance  of 
apostolic  usages. 

To  the  Church  and  to  the  churches  the  Great  Head  of  the 
Church,  who  is,  and  always  will  be,  its  invisible  but  ever-present 
Euler,  gave  authority  to  provide  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
and  therefore  the  right  to  choose  those  who  were  to  be  the 
preachers  and  teachers,  and  to  administer  the  Sacraments.  To 
the  Church  and  to  the  churches  He  gave  the  right  of  discipline, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  143 

the  power  of  the  keys,  the  right  to  open  aud  to  close  the  door,  to 
bind  and  to  loose.  He  did  not  give  it  authority  over  the  bodily 
life  and  over  the  earthly  affairs  of  the  individual  and  the  commu- 
nity, for  the  Church  has  to  do  with  the  spiritual  things.  It  is  to 
watch  over  two  things;  first  of  all,  over  "the  faith  which  was  once 
delivered  unto  the  saints,"  the  pure  faith  cf  God's  Word ;  and 
secondly,  over  the  souls  that  belong  to  it.  It  is  bound  by  its  very 
constitution,  to  have  no  fellowship  with  those  who  teach  "for 
doctrine  the  commandments  of  men;"  and  it  is  equally  bound  to 
have  no  fellowship,  "if  any  man  that  is  called  a  brother  be  a  for- 
nicator, or  covetous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer,  or  a  drunkard,  or 
an  extortioner."  If  any  man  refuses  to  hear  her  in  those  mat- 
ters in  which  she  has  the  right  to  speak  and  to  judge,  the  Saviour's 
word  forever  stands  fast,  "let  him  be  unto  thee  as  a  heathen 
man  and  a  publican,"  until  he  brings  forth  fruits  meet  for  re- 
pentance, when  he  is  to  be  restored  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
Church. 

The  constitution  of  the  Church  and  of  the  churches  is  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  the  scope  and  limitations  of  the  authority 
therein  given,  if  carefully  observed,  will  prevent,  on  the  one  hand, 
priestly  and  hierarchical  assumption,  and  on  the  other,  the  asser- 
tion of  the  self-will  of  the  individual,  and  that  want  of  discipline 
in  matters  of  doctrine  and  practice  that  must  lead  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Church. 

Although  the  New  Testament  does  not  say  anything  about  the 
organization  of  a  number  of  churches  into  a  larger  body,  we  do 
not  believe  it  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel ;  if  they  do  so 
for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  and  supporting  one  another  in 
the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  the  promo- 
tion of  such  work  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  men, 
as  can  be  better  accomplished  by  united  effort.  But  in  doing  so 
the  united  body,  no  matter  what  its  name  may  be,  has  no  right  to 
deprive  the  individual  church  of  the  authority  given  to  it  by 
Christ,  even  as  the  local  congregation  or  church  has  no  right  to 
surrender  what  its  Lord  and  Saviour  has  given  to  it  as  a  priceless 
and  inalienable  possession. 


144  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


REMARKS. 

Kev.  Haas  said  : — A  difficulty  arises  in  the  minds  of  plain  people. 
Church  authority  implies  discipline,  but  it  is  often  asked  why  so  little 
discipline  is  exercised.  There  are,  e.  g.,  certain  papers  and  publica- 
tions with  the  Lutheran  name  attacking  Lutheran  doctrines  and  prin- 
ciples and  they  are  doing  it  with  impunity.  What  our  peojjle  wish  to 
know  is,  if  we  have  authority  why  it  is  not  exercised  ?  Is  our  authority 
a  rope  of  sand?    This  matter  has  important  and  vital  bearings. 

Dr.  Chas.  S.  Albert  said : — It  is  a  question  whether  we  do  not 
over-estimate  the  powers  of  a  congregation  made  up  of  a  few  members 
when  we  recall  what  the  Church  meant  in  apostolic  times.  The 
Church  at  Jerusalem  was  the  community  of  believers,  not  a  number 
of  small  congregations,  independent  and  distinct  as  with  us.  Such 
was  the  case  too  at  Ephesus  and  Corinth.  Authority  was  not  vested 
in  a  handful.  It  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether  we  have  not 
gone  too  far  when  we  concede  all  authority  to  congregations  made  up 
of  a  few  men  and  women,  irrespective  of  the  community  of  believers  to 
whom  they  belong.  It  invites  weakness  of  church  government.  Its 
intense  individualism  is  provocative  of  anarchy  and  not  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints. 

Eev.  KuNZMANN  said :— One  of  the  difficulties  of  theology  has  been 
to  define  the  Church  and  to  differentiate  between  her  and  the  King- 
dom. "  The  Scope  and  Limitation  of  Church  Authority  "  cannot  be 
defined  until  we  have  correctly  defined  the  term  Church — her  nature, 
sphere  and  purpose.  EmO-Tjaia  and  B^cO^eia — Church  and  Kingdom — 
have  been  regarded  as  synonyms,  and,  in  consequence,  nmch  confusion 
and  many  errors  have  resulted.  Rome  confounds  them  and  in  her 
definition  of  the  Church  assumes  the  powers  of  the  Kingdom.  Hence, 
she  claims  infallibility,  miracles  and  temporal  power.  She  claims  in 
her  imperfection  to  do  and  exercise  functions,  which  God  has  alone 
promised  to  perfection.  Concede  her  definition  of  the  Church  and  her 
claims  must  be  acknowledged.  But  here  we  come  upon  her  funda- 
mental error.  Christ  founded  the  Church,  the  association  of  believers, 
on  the  truth  of  Peter's  confession,  and  to  the  Church  is  given  the 
power  of  the  keys.  Here  we  see  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the 
Kingdom.  Both  are  of  heaven,  and  not  of  earth.  But  the  Church  is 
in  order  to  the  Kingdom,  is  to  loose  men  by  the  power  of  the  keys  so 
that  they  may  become  members  of  the  Kingdom.  The  little  Hock  is 
first,  and  afterward,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  145 

will  receive  the  Kingdom.  The  Church  is  composed  of  weak  mortals, 
and  in  her  experience  answers  to  Christ's  first  coming  in  humility  to 
sutler  and  die.  The  Kingdom  is  composed  of  resurrected  saints  and  in 
its  experience  answers  to  the  second  coming  in  glory.  The  only  power 
of  the  Church  is  the  power  of  the  keys,  in  the  exercise  of  which  she 
looses  from  sin  and  makes  men  heirs  of  the  Kingdom.  The  same  is 
shown  in  her  commission.  Whatever  offices  and  functions  as  well  as 
authority  may  be  needed  to  perform  this  lowly  and  yet  glorious  work, 
belongs  to  her.  The  Church  is  cotemporaneous  with  the  persecuting 
and  ungodly  world,  out  of  which  she  calls  the  saints,  heirs  of  the 
Kingdom.  But  the  Kingdom  supersedes  and  overthrows  all  the  pow- 
ers of  earth.  Our  Confessors,  in  the  17th  Article,  clearly  recognized 
that  the  Kingdom  would  and  could  not  be  established  before  Christ's 
second  coming  and  the  resurrection;  and  hence  condemned  the 
notions  of  the  Anabaptists  and  Romanists,  who  thought  to  establish 
the  Kingdom  before  the  resurrection.  The  Church,  like  her  Lord,  ever 
ministers  and  is  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  the  Kingdom  rules  over 
all.  God  will  not  allow  to  the  Church,  imperfect  on  the  human  side, 
the  functions  and  powers  which  will  belong  to  her  after  Christ  has 
presented  her  before  the  Father,  having  neither  spot  nor  wrinkle. 
The  Church  first,  the  Kingdom  afterward.  Suffering  with  Him,  then 
reigning  with  Him.  This  is  the  order.  Miracles  were  wrought  as 
signs  of  the  age  to  come,  but  they  are  not  a  part  of  this  age,  and  their 
pretense  by  Rome  on  the  one  hand  and  so-called  Christian  Science 
(which  has  been  well  said,  is  neither  Christian  nor  science)  are  simply 
lying  wonders.  When  men  claim  for  the  Church  what  alone  belongs 
to  the  Kingdom,  they  must  make  pretensions  of  such  lying  wonders 
and  lying  sinless  perfection.  The  scope  of  her  authority  is  over  the 
saints,  and  them  alone ;  and  her  limitation  is  the  power  of  the  keys, 
the  administration  of  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments ;  their  guardian- 
ship and  protection. 

Dr.  Wolf  in  reply  to  Rev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas  said,  a  phrase  of  the  last 
speaker  offered  a  fitting  answer:  "the  perfect  order  of  things."  This 
perfect  state  we  have  not  reached.  How  can  the  Church  proceed 
against  the  sinuous,  slippery  course  of  a  writer  or  editor,  who  deals 
in  insinuations  and  evasions,  and  contradicts  in  one  paper  the  veiy 
position  he  maintained  in  another?  We  have  now  in  this  Common- 
wealth under  indictment  a  man  holding  the  highest  oflice  in  the  gift 
of  the  State,  and  serious  and  apparently  well-founded  as  are  the 
charges  against  him,  there  is  a  very  general  fear  that  he  will  escape 
conviction.  The  machinery  of  the  Church  for  enforcing  discipline 
10 


146  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

upon  those  who  injure  her  good  name,  is  even  more  defective  than 
that  of  the  secuhir  Courts. 

Besides,  the  worst  use  that  an  errorist  can  be  put  to  in  these  days 
is  to  let  him  pose  as  a  martyr^  His  influence  for  harm  is  thus  multi- 
plied a  thousandfold. 

SACRAMENTAL  IDEA  IN  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY  AND  WORSHIP. 

BY  PKOF.  A.  SPAETH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

In  presenting  as  briefly  as  possible  a  few  thoughts  on  the 
"  Sacramental  Idea  in  Lutheran  Theology  and  Worship,"  I  pro- 
pose to  confine  myself  to  two  points  which  seem  to  deserve  special 
notice  at  the  present  time  : 

1.  The  general  idea  of  the  Sacramentum,  over  against  the  Sacri- 
ficium,  Sacramental  over  against  Sacrificial,  in  the  relation 
between  God  and  man  and  their  dealings  with  each  other. 

2.  The  specific  meaning  of  the  term  "  Sacramental,"  as  describ- 
ing the  union  between  visible  earthly  elements  and  invisible 
heavenly  things,  and  the  manner  of  reception  or  fruition  in  those 
Xew  Testament  ordinances,  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  par- 
ticularly the  latter. 

I. 
The  general  idea  of  the  Sacramentum  as  over  against  the  Sac- 
rificium,  in  the  relation  between  God  and  man,  and  their  dealings 
with  each  other,  is  presented  in  the  Apology,  Article  XXIV., 
De  Missa,  where  Melanchthon  answers  the  question  :  Quid  sit 
sacrificium  et  quae  sint  sacrificii  species  ?  Quid  patres  de  sacrificio 
senserint  ?  De  usu  sacramenti  et  de  sacrificio.  The  importance 
of  the  distinction  between  sacrificium  and  sacramentum  is  empha- 
sized. Both  may  be  comprehended  under  tlie  geneiic  name  of 
ceremonia,  holy  rites  (Opus  sacrum).  Sacramentum  est  cermonia 
vel  opus,  in  quo  Deus  nobis  exhibct  hoc  quod  ofiert  annexa 
ceremoniie  promissio,  ut  Ba2)tismu3  est  ojius,  non  quod  nos  Deo 
offerinuis  (geben  oder  anbieteu),  sed  in  quo  nos  baptizat,  vid. 
minister  vice  Dei,  et  hie  oflfert  et  exhibet  Deus  remissionem 
peccatorum,  juxt  promissionem  (Mark  16  :  16.)  Econtra  sacri- 
ficium est  cermonia  vel  opus  quod  nos  Deo  reddimus  et  Eum 
honore  afficianms.     The  sacrament  accordingly  is  a  divine  act 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  147 

exhibiting,  offering  and  conveying  divine  grace.  On  the  other 
hand  the  sacrificium  is  a  human  act  rendered  to  God  by  man  to 
give  Him  His  due  honor. 

Eleven  years  before  the  Apology  was  written  Luther  in  his 
Sermon  "  Vom  Neuen  Testament,  d.  i.  von  der  Mcsse  "  (Erlangen 
Edit.,  Vol.  27),  had  treated  the  same  subject  even  more  fully.  He 
says,  "  In  all  tie  dealings  of  man  with  God  the  proper  way  and 
order  must  be  this  :  Not  that  man  should  begin  and  lay  the 
foundation  stone,  but  that  God  alone,  without  any  endeavor  or 
effort  on  the  part  of  man,  must  come  first  (zuvorkommen),  and 
give  His  word  of  promise.  This  word  of  God  is  the  first  thing, 
the  foundation  and  rock  on  whicli  afterwards  all  words  and 
thoughts  of  man  are  built.  This  word  must  be  thankfully  re- 
ceived by  man,  confidently  believing  the  divine  promise,  not 
doubting  that  it  is  and  will  be  done-  even  as  He  promises.  Such 
faith  is  the  beginning,  middle  and  end  of  every  work  and  right- 
eousness of  man.  For  inasmuch  as  man  giveth  the  honor 
to  God,  taking  Him  and  confessing  Him  to  be  true,  he  thei'eby 
finds  a  gracious  God  who,  in  turn,  will  honor  him  and  confess 
him.  It  is  therefore  impossible  that  man  by  his  own  reason  and 
strength  should  ascend  into  heaven  with  works  of  his  own,  and 
prevent  (zuvorkommen)  God  and  move  Him  to  be  gracious — but 
God  must  come  before  all  works  and  thoughts  of  man,  and  must 
give  a  clearly  expressed  promise  of  His  word  which  man  is  to 
grasp  and  to  hold  in  firm  faith.  Thus  follows  the  Holy  Ghost 
that  is  given  to  man  through  the  same  faith."  ....  After  a 
brief  survey  of  the  divine  pi'omises  of  grace  and  salvation  in  the 
Old  Testament,  Luther  comes  to  the  "  Testament "  of  the  new 
covenant,  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  in  which  he  sees  "  a  brief 
summary  of  all  the  miracles  and  graces  of  God,  as  fulfilled  in 
Christ  ....  A  testament  is  a  Beneficium  datum.  It  bestows  a 
benefit  upon  us,  it  does  not  receive  a  benefit.  "Who  has  ever 
heard  that  a  man  who  receives  a  testament  is  doing  a  good  work? 
He  simply  takes  a  benefit  to  himself, — appropriates  it.  Thus  iu 
the  Mass  (Lord's  Supper),  we  do  not  give  anything  to  Christ, 
we  only  take  from  Him.  Likewise  in  baptism,  which  is  also  a 
divine  testament  and  sacrament,  no  one  gives  anything  to  God, 


148  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GE2STi:RAL  CONFERENCE. 

but  receives  from  Him ;  so  also  in  the  preadiing  of  the  Word. 
There  is  no  work  of  man  in  all  this,  but  simply  the  exercise  of 
faith  on  the  part  of  man.  Tliere  is  no  Officium,  but  Beneficium, 
no  work  or  service,  but  only  fruition  and  benefit." 

■In  this  wider  sense  then  the  "  Sacramental  Idea  in  Lutheran 
Theology  and  Worship"  represents  the  very  heart  and  centre  of 
the  great  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Gospel  of  God's  free  and  sovereign  grace.  It  sets 
forth  and  emphasizes  the  divine  initiative  in  the  whole  plan  and 
W'ork  of  our  salvation.  It  ascribes  all  power  and  honor  exclu- 
sively to  God's  grace  over  against  any  work  of  man.  God 
comes,  God  works,  God  gives ;  His  are  also  the  means  and 
methods  by  which  He  has  chosen  to  work  out  our  salvation,  the 
means  of  grace  and  ordinances  which  are  objective  divine  realities 
to  offer  and  convey  God's  saving  grace  to  the  individual.  God 
first  loves.  He  makes  known  his  love  to  the  individual,  and  being 
assured  that  we  are  "  beloved  "  we  believe, — our  faith  itself  being 
altogether  God's  own  work,  God's  gift. 

Now  this  position  is  of  necessity  a  protest  against  the  princi- 
ples developed  by  the  Mediaeval  Church  which  is  characterized  by 
a  general  tendency  to  substitute  the  sacrificium  to  the  sacramen- 
tum,  the  human  act  and  performauce  to  the  divine  gift  and  work, 
or  at  least  to  exalt  the  sacrificium  over  against  the  sacramentum 
in  such  a  manner  that  God  is  robbed  of  His  honor,  the  exclusive 
and  absolute  power  of  His  grace  is  denied,  and  man's  work  is 
considered  as  either  directly  or  indirectly  meritorious  and  efiica- 
cious  toward  his  salvation.  A  few  references  to  the  practice  and 
teachiug  of  the  Mediceval  Church  will  clearly  illustrate  this 
statement.  The  whole  service  of  the  Church  and  the  participa- 
tion of  the  Christian  in  that  service  is  looked  upon  as  in  itself  a 
good  work  that  tends  to  merit  the  good  pleasure  of  God.  In  the 
Roman  practice  of  Confession  and  Absolution  the  sacrificial  side, 
the  human  confession  of  sin,  is  made  the  j)rincipal  feature.  For 
this  confession  completeness  and  perfection  is  demanded  and 
claimed,  and  the  extent,  power  and  apj)lication  of  divine  forgive- 
ness is  limited  by,  and  made  subject  to,  the  exact  enumeration  of 
all  sins.     On  the  other  hand,  for  the  Chlirch  of  the  Reformation, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  149 

in  tliis  rite  of  Confession  and  Absolution,  the  sacramental  side, 
the  divine  word  and  act  of  grace,  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  is  the 
princij  al  feature;  confession  itself,  as  a  human  sacrificial  act,  is 
admitted  to  be  of  necessity  imperfect,  fragmentary  at  the  very 
best ;  but  the  sacramental  side,  the  divine  act  and  declaration  of 
forgiveness,  is  considered  as  perfect  and  complete,  and  so  to  be 
taken  and  honored  by  the  believer.  Again,  take  the  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Altar  itself  as  the  strongest  illustration  of  the  point 
in  question.  To  the  Church  of  the  Reformation  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  the  culmination  and  concentration  of  all  that  God  has 
done  and  is  doing  for  the  salvation  of  man,  the  greatest  of  all 
His  gifts,  and  the  most  direct  personal  api)licatiou  of  this  gift. 
To  the  ^Nlediieval  Church  it  is  the  culmination  of  all  human  offer- 
ings and  sacrificial  acts,  the  unbloody  sacrifice,  with  propitiatory 
power  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  the  greatest  of  all  human  acts 
and  performances  in  the  sphere  of  religion. 

It  is,  however,  uot  only  in  the  Church  of  Rome  that  such  erro- 
neous views  and  practices  are  found  concerning  the  relation  be- 
tween what  is  sacrificial  and  sacramental.  There  are  features 
also  in  the  Protestant  denominations  around  us  which  indicate 
that  with  them  also  the  proper  balance  between  the  sacrificial 
and  the  sacramental  is  frequently  disturbed,  and  that  the  former 
is  being  exalted  at  the  expense  of  the  latter.  The  sacraments 
themselves  are  almost  entirely  stiijjped  of  their  proper  sacra- 
mental character,  and  turned  again  into  sacrificial  acts  of  man. 
They  are  chiefly  considered  as  human  acts  of  profession.  God  is 
no  hniger  seen  in  them  as  the  principal  actor  and  giver.  Man 
is  acting,  presenting  himself,  making  a  profession  of  faith.  From 
this  position  results  the  common  widespread  indifference  toward 
Infant  Baptism,  even  among  those  Protestant  bodies  which  are 
still  })edobaptists  in  their  theological  standards.  Consistently 
carried  out  this  view  leads  to  the  final  rejection  of  Infant  Bnp- 
tism.  I  may  also  point,  in  this  connection,  to  the  modern  prayer 
meeting  in  which  prayer  is  treated  as  a  means  of  grace,  a  kind  of 
sacramental  power  is  ascribed  to  it,  while  in  its  very  nature  it 
can  never  be  anything  but  sacrificial. 

In  the  service  of  the  Lutheran  Church  our  sound  and  Scrip- 


150  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE, 

tural  position  iu  this  respect  must  naturally  express  itself.  We 
look  upon  our  service  as  the  means  to  establish,  to  preserve,  to 
cultivate  and  to  demonstrate  our  communion  with  God.  God's 
side,  the  sacramental,  representing  divine  action,  must  be  to  us 
the  prominent,  the  domineering  feature.  His  work  in  the  means 
of  grace,  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments,  secure  to  us  all  the  bene- 
fits to  be  expected  from  our  communion  with  Him.  Naturally, 
then,  our  service  culminates  in  the  celebration  of  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Altar,  whereby  the  New  Testament  grace  of  forgiveness, 
life  and  salvation  is  sealed  to  us  individually  by  the  reception  of 
the  Body  and  the  Blood  of  Christ  under  the  elements  of  bread 
and  wine.  But  the  sacrificial  side  is  by  no  means  overlooked  in 
our  service.  We  bring  to  God  the  sacrifices  of  our  prayers, 
praise  and  confession,  of  our  gifts  and  our  persons.  We  want  a 
congregation  of  spiritual  priests,  w'orr^hipping  God  in  spirit  and 
in  truth ;  but  all  their  sacrifices  without  propitiatory  power,  only 
eucharistic,  rendering  thanks  to  God  for  the  grace  received.  A 
significant  and  apjjropriate  Expression  of  these  two  sides  in  the 
service,  the  sacramental  and  the  sacrificial,  is  the  change  of  posi- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  officiating  minister  at  the  altar,  as  pre- 
scribed in  many  of  our  old  Agenda.  In  all  the  .sacramental 
parts  of  the  service,  whenever  the  minister  has  a  divine  message 
to  deliver  to  the  congregation,  he  faces  the  congregation.  In  all 
the  sacrificial  parts,  when  he  speaks  with  and  in  behalf  of  the 
congregation,  he  stands,  as  the  other  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion, facing  the  altar. 

^  II. 

But  there  is  yet  another  specific  meaning  of  the  term  "sacra- 
mental," of  which  we  propose  to  say  a  few  words.  It  is  that 
sense  of  the  word  by  which  we  describe  the  mysterious  union 
between  visible  and  invisible  things,  the  earthly  elements  and  the 
heavenly  gifts,  and  the  peculiar  manner  of  fruition,  w'hich  we 
call  sacramental,  in  those  New  Testament  ordinances,  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  particularly  the  latter. 

To  our  Lutheran  Church  it  is  an  essential  feature  of  those 
divine  ordinances  which  alone  she  calls  sacraments,  that  there 
should  be  not  only  a  direct  appointment  by  Christ  Himself,  not 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  151 

only  an  offer  and  promise  of  New  Testament  grace,  but  also  the 
choosing  and  appointing  of  certain  earthly  elements,  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  word  of  grace,  so  as  to  become  the  visible  organs 
by  which  heavenly  gifts  are  conveyed  to  the  recipient,  and  the 
New  Testament  grace  is  sealed  to  him  individually.  Sacra- 
mentum  visibilis  forma  invisibilis  gratite.  (Luther.)  Things 
which  in  themselves  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  nature,  like  water, 
bread  and  wine,  are  by  Christ's  own  appointment  transferred 
into  the  kingdom  of  grace,  and  thus  become  actual  and  real 
means  of  grace  through  their  connection  with  the  Word.  Accedit 
verbum  ad  elemeiitum  et  fit  sacramentum.  For  this  very  reason 
we  draw  the  line  between  those  two  ordinances,  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  other  sacred  rites  and  institutions,  like  ordi- 
nation, confirmation,  absolution,  etc.,  which  we  refuse  to  call  sac- 
raments because  they  are  without  that  sacramental  union  between 
earthly  elements  and  heavenly  gifts. 

Now  this  sacramental  union,  however  mysterious,  is  to  us  al- 
together real.  Independent  on  human  belief  or  unbelief,  its 
reality  is  based  on  and  assured  by  the  divine  word  of  institution. 
The  water  and  the  Spirit,  in  Baptism,  the  bread  and  wine  and 
the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar, 
are  united,  not  by  the  faith  of  the  recipient,  but  by  the  powerful, 
true  and  abiding  word  of  Christ  which  appointed  such  sacramen- 
tal union,  not  for  the  union  as  such,  but  for  the  communion  of 
the  recipients  and  the  strengthening  of  their  faith.  Tlie  reality 
and  objectivity  of  this  sacramental  union  carries  with  it  the  re- 
ality of  the  sacramental  fruition  on  the  part  of  all  recipients. 
There  is  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  not  the  reception  of  the  elements 
alone  for  those  who  do  not  believe,  and  the  rece])tion  of  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ  for  those  who  believe ;  but  the  sacramental 
fruition  of  both,  the  elements  and  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ, 
in  their  sacramental  union.  This  is  the  clear  teaching  of  our 
Augsburg  Confession,  that  the  true  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ, 
truly  present  and  truly  communicated  under  the  species  of  bread 
and  wine,  are  received  by  all  communicants.  All  who  come  to 
the  Supper  receive  sacramentally  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ, 
while  those  only  who  receive  in  faith  receive  savingly  the  Body 


152  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

and  Blood  of  Christ  as  the  seal  of  their  forgiveness,  life  and  sal- 
vation. 

This  truly  scriptural  realism  which  our  Church  maintains  is 
most  beautifully  adapted  to  the  needs  of  our  human  i)er»ouality 
in  body  and  soul,  conveying  the  most  direct  assurance  of  per- 
sonal salvation.  It  is  deeply  roofed  in  the  very  centre  of  God's 
revelation,  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation.  And  it  repi-esents  a 
guarantee  and  a  type  of  that  future  consummation  ^vheu  our 
heavenly  citizenship  shall  be  fully  realized,  when  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  shall  fashion  anew  the  body  of  our  humiliation  that 
it  may  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  His  glory,  when  we  will  un- 
derstand the  deep  truth  cimtained  in  the  saying  of  the  Suabiau 
theologian,  Oetinger,  "Das  Ende  aller  Wege  Gottes  ist  Leib- 
lichkeit." 

THE  SACRAMENTAL   IDEA   IN   LUTHERAN   THEOLOGY  AND 

WORSHIP. 

BY   J.    0.    KOLLER,   D.D. 

It  is  intensely  interesting  and  'highly  gratifying  to  a  Lutheran 
to  know  that  his  church  believes  and  maintains  the  conception  of 
the  Holy  Sacraments  as  set  forth  in  her  confessions.  An  attemjjt 
to  translate  the  magnificent  doctrine  into  practical  uses  is  a  task 
for  the  master.  Some  of  you  have,  doubtless,  heard  the  story  of 
Ilandel,  how  when  asked  to  play  the  concluding  voluntary  at  a 
Sunday  morning  service  in  a  country  church,  he  kept  the  people 
spell-bound  within  their  seats,  until,  at  the  first  inpatient  touch 
of  the  regular  perfjrmer,  the  congregation  walked  out  as  usual. 
That  much  depends  upon  the  interpretation.  Perhaps  I  have  not 
even  apjirehended  the  purpose  of  my  ai)pointment,  to  say  nothing 
of  throwing  additional  light  upon  the  fundamental  teaching. 

However  the  fornmlation  of  the  subject  presupposes  a  sacra- 
mental idea  in  theology  and  worship  other  than  Lutheran — an 
idea  founded  chiefly  either  in  metaphysics  or  sentimentalism, 
Koman  Catholic  or  Zwinglian,  whilst  the  Lutheran  has  its  au- 
thority from  God  and  the  pure  enlightenment  of  his  Word.  It  is 
therefore  not  encumbered  by  mataphysical  distinctions.  Whilst 
in  Romanism  we  are  limited  to  an  ojms  operatum  and  in  Zwing- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  153 

lianism  to  a  vivid  imagination,  Lutheranism  confines  us  to  a  spir- 
itual perception.  In  the  one  system  of  theology  and  worship  the 
idea  is  only  an  eccksiastical  dogma;  in  the  other  an  intellectual 
proposition ;  and  in  the  Lutheran  it  is  a  supernatural  fact  and 
distinctively  the  content  of  a  living  faith — yet  not  as  if  its  efficacy 
depended  upon  the  communicant's  heart  any  more  than  the  theo- 
logian's mind  or  the  priest's  manipulation.  The  real  and  the 
practical  have  therefore  an  immense  advantage  over  the  theoreti- 
cal and  experimental.  We  believe,  therefore  we  receive  the  re- 
generation in  baptism  and  the  sustentation  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Reformation  was  born  in  Luther's 
inner  consciousness:  it  is  no  less  true  of  the  Sacraments  as  he 
understood  them ;  they  had  become  a  mighty  reality  in  his  experi- 
ence; to  him  they  were  living  entities,  rather  than  tlie  products 
of  logical  deductions.  To  tlie  great  comfort  of  his  adherents  his 
views  reached  a  very  conservative  standpoint  as  he  advanced 
toward  the  completion  of  his  masterly  work.  Even  Canon  Luck- 
cock  notes,  with  great  satisfaction,  that  the  Holy  Communion 
found  so  fair  and  lucid  a  definition  in  the  Protestant  Confession 
at  Augsburg. 

But  so  intimately  associated  with  the  Lord's  Supper  is  Holy 
Baptism  that  according  to  Martensen  the  latter  is  the  sacrament 
of  the  children,  as  the  former  is  the  sacrament  of  such  as  are 
of  riper  years.  Baptism  is  the  setting  up  of  the  new  covenant; 
not  the  introduction  of  a  germ,  but  the  implantation  of  a  life; 
the  Lord's  Supper  is  its  renewal  and  nourishment.  By  Baptism 
a  man  is  incorporated  into  the  new  kingdom  and  receives  a  new 
personality.  By  means  of  the  Lord's  Supper  this  new  personality 
is  brought  to  pei'fection.  The  differences  of  interpretation  are 
accounted  for  not  by  the  nature  of  the  sacraments,  but  by  indi- 
vidualistic opinion. 

Hence  the  two  sacraments  contain  the  pivotal  doctrines  upon 
which  the  facts  of  Lutheran  theology  and  woi-ship  revolve ;  the 
sacramental  idea  is  the  incorporating  and  energizing  element  in 
the  life  of  the  Church.  Here  the  Divine  mysteries  reveal  them- 
selves to  the  humble  investigation  of  the  true  believers. 

Thus  the  Confessors  say:  "Concerning  the  use  of  the  sacra- 


154  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

ments  our  Churches  teach,  that  they  were  instituted  not  only  as 
marks  of  a  Christian  profession  amongst  men,  but  rather  as  signs 
and  evidences  of  the  will  of  God  toward  us,  for  the  purpose  of 
exciting  and  confirming  the  faith  of  those  wlio  use  them.  Hence 
the  sacraments  ought  to  be  received  with  faith  in  the  promises 
whicli  are  exhibited  and  set  forth  by  them. 

They  therefore  condemn  those  who  teach  that  the  sacraments 
justify  by  the  mere  performance  of  the  act  and  do  not  teach  that 
faith  which  believes  our  sins  to  be  forgiven  is  required  in  the  use 
of  the  sacraments." 

Harnack  of  Dorpat  maintains  that  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  the  culmination  of  the  Divine  worship — the 
nerve  and  sinew  of  the  public  worship  of  Christians,  as  Gerhard 
teaches,  for  with  it  we  reach  the  most  solemn  of  all  worship, 
namely,  the  thanksgiving  Collect  and  Benediction.  That  is 
soundly  scriptural.  Thanksgiving  and  Benediction — surely  it  is 
only  Christ  in  our  praises  and  prayers  that  makes  them  worship. 
True,  some  one  forcibly  remarks  that  "to  an  aesthetic  or  literary 
or  (most  odious  of  all)  to  a  stagey  piety  this  truth  may  seem  both 
narrow  and  inhumane  " — slow  and  formal.  But  this  sacramental 
idea  is  not  responsible  for  the  esthetic  or  literary,  or  stagey  con- 
struction placed  upon  the  sacred  mysteries. 

A  few  things  are  definitely  settled  in  the  Lutheran  Church, 
and  believed  on,  notwithstanding  our  many  "  isms."  First,  that 
the  sacraments  are  acts,  natural  and  supernatural,  realistic  and 
substantial  actualities,  not  formalistic  practices.  The  strongest 
emphasis  is  laid  upon  this  principle  by  the  leading  theologians 
of  our  Church  from  the  beginning,  which,  to  say  the  least,  is  a 
most  encour;iging  thought  to  the  communicant.  Luther  says  the 
sacraments  are  actions ;  not  permanent  creations  (stantes  fac- 
tiones).  To  which  Melanchthon  replies,  "  that  there  is  no  sacra- 
ment outside  of  the  sacramental  action  ;"  from  which  it  follows, 
says  Ko.stlin,  that  the  host  is  not  to  be  enclosed  in  a  casket,  and 
curried  about.  Neither,  we  may  add,  is  it  to  be  transformed  into 
a  photograph,  as  of  some  beloved  one,  and  held  up  for  sorrowful 
contemplation. 

Lutheran  expositors  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  who  laid 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  lo5 

very  em{)hatic  importance  upon  the  act  of  the  communion  to  pre- 
serve it  from  the  subjective  on  the  one  hand  and  tlie  mechanical 
on  the  other.  But  just  as  in  the  Churcli  of  EngLand  the  ninety- 
eighth  Ps^ahu  was  substituted  for  tiie  Magnificat  to  pacify  the  ex- 
treme Protestants  who  were  afraid  to  use  the  triumph  §ong  of  the 
Virgin  ISIary,  so  some  Lutheran  writers  have  fallen  back  upon 
memorialism  in  order  to  escape  materialism,  and  thus  have  missed 
the  better  way  we  have  come  to  magnify. 

Dr.  Forsyth  of  Cambridge,  England,  has  manifestly  caught  the 
genuine  signification  :  The  Communion  is  an  act.  It  is  not  sim- 
ply a  feeling  nor  a  contemplation.  So  far  it  may  be  described  as 
au  opus  operatum.  "Do  this"  is  the  word,  not  "consider  this." 
Am  Anfang .war  die  That.  "The  Saviour  in  that  hour  did  not 
think  of  Himself  aesthetically  as  an  object  of  contemplation."  He 
was  really  present  breaking  the  bread  and  pouring  out  the  wine. 
The  disciples  were  actually  there  eating  and  drinking,  not  exer- 
cising their  memory,  but  believing  on  Him.  The  emphasis  is  not 
on  "remembrance,"  but  on  "Me."  Everything  turns  on  the 
personality  of  the  speaker  as  he  defines,  illustrates  and  seals  the 
atoning  work.  Accedlt  verbiim  ad  elemeiitum  et  fit  sacramentum. 
The  audible  Word,  the  visible  Word,  the  personal  Word.  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  AVord  was  with  God,  and  the 
Word  was  God.  The  sacramental  act  is  unthinkable,  aside  from 
the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  communion. 

The  Lutheran  idea  of  the  sacraments  gets  its  argument  from 
the  Divine  revelation.  The  sacraments  are  not  an  invention  of 
the  Reformers.  They  are  not  one  of  Luther's  original  discov- 
eries. The  continuity  of  the  Divine  thought  takes  us  back  at 
least  to  the  Circumcision  and  the  Passover,  and  comes  to  evan- 
gelical operation  in  the  Gospel  economy,  where  the  efficient 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  leads  to  the  Son  and  is  the  dis- 
penser of  the  life  which  proceeds  from  the  Son,  is  bound  to  the 
use  of  ways  and  means.  These  so-called  means  of  grace  are  dis- 
tinguished as  the  Word  of  God  and  the  sacraments;  through 
them  the  word  and  the  act — the  grace  of  God — reaches  us,  as 
Von  Berger  explains,  and  becomes  a  factor  of  our  consciousness. 
Thty  are,  so  to  speak,  the  channels  through  which  the  fountains 


156  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

of  life,  as  they  proceed  from  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  Son  of  God, 
supply  to  our  faith,  power  and  fruitfulness.  The  differentiating 
peculiarity  of  the  sacraments  with  the  word  of  God  are  visible 
signs  with  which  the  word  is  intimately  connected,  together  with 
the  accompanying  consecration  and  administration.  Conse- 
quently it  is  demandtd  by  Chemnitz  that  the  words  of  the  insti- 
tution be  not  read  in  the  style  of  an  historical  narrative,  l)ut  in 
such  a  manner  and  expression  that  Christ  Himself,  according  to 
His  command  and  promise,  and  through  His  word,  be  set  before 
the  congregation  as  really  present  in  the  service  of  the  Holy 
Supper,  and  by  virtue  of  His  word  His  body  and  blood  are  im- 
parted to  the  communicant,  for  it  is  He  who  administers  Him- 
self, and  says,  "  This  is  my  body." 

This  Lutheran  doctrine  leaves  nothing  unexplained,  as  far  as 
the  divine  mystery  admits  of  explanation.  There  either  takes 
place  a  full  identification  of  the  mystical  and  the  visible  element, 
without,  however,  effacing  the  outward  sign  ;  or  there  is  presented 
the  promised  blessing  of  the  glorified  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
as  conveyed  in,  with  and  under  the  visible  signs.  Therefore  the 
material  signs  are  the  bearer  or  vehicle  of  the  invisible  grace. 
The  natural  is  indeed  the  image  and  sign  of  the  supernatural, 
yet  the  supernatural  is  inseparably  joined  with  the  natural,  so 
that  each  communicant  who  receives  the  natural  sign  during  the 
communion  also  becomes  a  partaker  of  the  supernatural  blessing, 
either  to  salvation  or  condemnation,  for  St.  Paul  will  have  it  that 
worthiness  or  un worthiness  depends  upon  the  discernment  of  the 
Lord's  body.  The  genuineness  and  integrity  of  the  sacrament 
are  consequently  not  conditioned  on  our  faith;  but  the  saving 
power  alone.  Only  to  him  who  receives  and  appropriates  them 
do  they  become  the  life  of  the  soul. 

Here  and  there  we  may  incur  the  charge  of  superstition  by 
emphasizing  this  real  presence — for  not  all  Lutherans  hold  the 
Lutheian  idea  ;  but  the  truth  is  not  bound  to  apologize  to  such 
as  renounce  one  distinctive  feature  after  the  other  until  the 
margin  becomes  perilously  limited.  At  any  rate  there  is  no  fear 
BO  l(jng  as  we  urge  that  the  real  presence  is  a  reality  of  present 
ad  and  ivill,  and  not  of  mere  substance. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  157 

Second.  It  follows  as  a  natural  consequence  that  the  sacra- 
mental idea  in  Lutheran  theology  and  worship  is  inseparable 
from  the  Church.  The  sacraments  are  not  only  acts,  but  acts  of 
the  collective  body  of  Christians.  Individualism  is  no  authority 
on  the  central  doctrine ;  neither  is  the  communion  the  privilege 
of  individualism.  We  are  not  to  be  robbed  of  the  high  standard 
of  doctrinal  statement  by  a  few  latitudiuarians  who  parade  their 
views  in  the  name  of  Lutheran  liberty  and  independence.  One 
of  the  most  pronounced  friends  of  religious  liberty  in  the  present 
day  reminds  us  of  the  fact  that  it  was  not  a  group  of  individuals 
to  whom  that  command  was  given,  but  to  a  body  already  organ- 
ized into  a  unity  by  the  life  and  purpose  standing  in  their  midst. 
"  They  were  not  united  to  each  other  except  in  so  far  as  each  was 
personally  united  to  Him.  The  Church  is  the  body  of  Christ. 
What  was  done  at  the  institution,  was  not  the  act  of  so  many 
units  in  combination.  It  was  the  act  first  of  Christ,  and  then  of 
a  living  community  capable,  by  a  common  soul,  of  a  unitary  act. 
These  disciples,  forming  the  fir.^t  church,  were  not  a  fagot,  but  a 
tree ;  not  a  basket  of  summer  fruit,  but  a  cluster  on  the  true 
vine."  We  readily  subscribe  to  this  language  even  when  the 
question  of  clinical  communion  is  raised,  where  Chemnitz  makes 
indispensable  the  consecration  of  the  elements  in  the  presence  of 
the  sick,  for  Jesus  uttered  His  words  at  the  time  and  place  of  the 
institution  and  directed  His  words  not  to  the  elements,  but  to 
people  to  whom  he  was  about  to  communicate  His  body  and 
blood.  If  the  priest  can  transubstantiate  the  bread  and  the  wine, 
then  the  presence  of  the  congregation  is  not  necessary.  But  that 
is  not  a  communion. 

A  faithful  Chri.stian  invariably  declined  to  commune  with  her 
afiiicted  sister  because  she  believed  that  the  communion  w-as  for 
the  congregation,  not  for  the  private  home  ;  though,  like  Luther, 
she  would  not  debar  the  sick  from  receiving  the  communion  in 
their  own  home,  in  accordance  with  the  recognized  order  of  the 
Church  ;  but  she  only  reprobated  the  custom  of  "peddling"  the 
elements  used  at  the  public  service  and  giving  delusive  comfort 
to  the  indolent.  Neither  would  she  detract  in  the  least  from  the 
necessity  and  privilege  of  making  her  act  an  intensely  personal 
and  individual  communion. 


158  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Third.  It  is  to  be  added,  also,  that  according  to  Lutheran  the- 
ology and  worship  the  sacraments  involve  respoiisiveness.  The 
sacramental  act  is  not  an  external  imposition.  "  Its  nature  is 
not  met  by  sitting  around  a  table  or  kneeling  at  an  altar,"  par- 
taking the  elements  and  calling  the  history  before  our  moved 
minds,  much  less  is  it  mechanically  bowing  before  a  transubstan- 
tiated substance.  Kleifoth  reports  the  experience  of  St.  Augus- 
tine :  "  On  account  of  the  consciousness  of  sin  he  knew  that  man 
cannot  serve  God,  in  his  natural  state,  but  on  the  sole  ground  of 
the  sacrifice  once  made  for  sin,  ])orn  again  in  baptism,  called  and 
enlightened  by  the  word,  nourished  through  the  flesh  and  blood 
of  our  Lord.  So  rigidly  is  this  principle  defended  that,  accord- 
ing to  Martensen,  the  communion  of  children  must  be  taken  ex- 
ception to  and  only  confirmed  Christians  must  be  admitted  to  it. 
And  so  fervently  does  the  Lutheran  adhere  to  his  lilierty  and 
personality,  w'hich  the  sacrament  supplies,  that  it  should  never  be 
given  to  those  who  have  lost  consciousness,  to  the  insane,  or  to 
the  sick  and  dying  who  are  in  an  unconscious  state,  and  above 
all  is  it  obligatory  that  the  most  sacred  ordinance  of  Christian 
worship  be  withheld  from  the  unworthy.  Sancta  Sanctis  w'as  a 
symbol  of  the  early  Church." 

Nothing  is  truer  than  that  the  Holy  Son  of  God  stands  ready 
to  respond  in  this  precious  ordinance  of  His  own  appointment  to 
the  penitent  and  believing  child  of  God ;  neither  is  a  more  sol- 
emn admonition  addressed  anywhere  else  to  the  unresponsive, 
impenitent,  formalistic,  unbelieving.  "  As  often  as  you  eat  this 
bread  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  proclaim  the  Lord's  death  till  He 
come."  Where  there  is  no  believing  proclamation  of  the  Redeemer 
there  is  no  joy  and  peace.  Consequently  there  is  the  marvelous 
beauty  and  helpfulness  of  the  Lutheran  typical  form  of  worship 
in  which  the  minister  and  people  are  alike  not  only  the  recipients 
of  the  Divine  blessing,  but  mutually  the  active  participants  in  the 
Holy  service.  Here  is  no  celebration  of  the  Mass  ;  nor  any 
Romish  weakne-s  or  Romeward  folly.  It  is  the  testimony  to  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  sacramental  idea  is  as  distinctively 
scrii)tural,  practical  and  beneficent  in  Lutlieran  worship  as  it  is 
in  theology. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  159 

For  instance,  it  is  the  remechj  for  ritualism  because  it  exalts  the 
sinritual  act  above  the  material  performance.  There  is  no  wor- 
ship of  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  one  and  water  in  the  other,  as 
symbols  deified  by  priestly  manipulations.  Hoc  e4  corpus  is  not 
a  hocus  pocus,  as  some  one  forcibly  expressed  it.  Among  us  the 
symbolism  is  in  the  Church's  act — in  the  breaking  and  pouring 
out  of  the  elements  and  the  receiving  and  partaking  of  them.  The 
material  objects  are  not  the  symbols ;  they  are  only  symbolic  of 
the  acts  in  the  worshipping  congregation — the  "  Handlungen  " 
in  thought,  word  and  deed.  This  removes  the  sacramental  thought 
to  an  infinite  distance  from  a  mechanical  performance,  whether 
that  be  the  elevation  of  the  host  or  the  mere  exaltation  of  the 
rite  ;  the  worship  is  not  a  matter  of  the  emotions  any  more  than 
of  superstition,  but  rather  spiritualized  activity. 

Said  the  old  priest  to  the  novitiate  :  "  What  wouldst  thou  do 
with  the  consecrated  host  in  crossing  a  stream  should  the  broken 
bridge  go  down  in  your  passage  ? "  The  answer  came  after  a 
moment's  reflection:  "The  bridge  would  not  go  down  when  I 
am  carrying  the  host  across."  Such  idolatry  is  an  impossibility 
in  purely  Lutheran  worship  ;  no  matter  how  much  it  catches  the 
admiration  of  symbolists,  or  repels  the  devotion  of  ceremonialists. 
Worship  in  the  Lutheran  Church  is  free  from  fatalism,  because 
the  sacramental  idea  pervades  every  phase  of  the  service — preach- 
ing, singing,  praying.  True  we  must  admit  that  there  is  a  deep 
distinction  between  the  communing  and  ordinary  acts  of  worship. 
In  these  we  chiefly  go  to  God,  but  in  communion  God  chiefly 
comes  to  us,  and  speaks  to  us,  and  through  us. 

The  teaching  is  very  explicit.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  a  eu- 
charistic  festival  according  to  which  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
are  administered  and  imparted,  in  ivith  and  under  the  consecrated 
elements,  to  all  the  participants  in  order  that  they  may  praise 
and  thank  God  for  such  a  rich,  comforting  and  blessed  testament. 
This  is  not  ritualism,  it  is  Lutheranism.  It  commends  itself  to 
every  devout  and  thoughtful  Christian.  A  little  boy  standing 
beside  his  parents  during  the  baptism  of  his  infant  brother  made 
reply  to  the  questions  and  joined  in  the  repetition  of  creed  and 
prayer.     To  him  the  sacrament  was  a  worship.     The  impression 


160  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

upon  the  father  has  been  most  salutary,  and  his  attendance  at 
the  services  in  the  sanctuary,  accompanied  by  tlie  child,  is  a  new 
revelation  of  the  sacramental  teaching  of  our  Church.  "  Things 
■which  are  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent  are  revealed  unto 
babes." 

Again  it  follows  without  dispute  that  the  sacramental  idea  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  marks  the  downiall  of  priestism  as  a  factor 
in  theology  and  worship.  The  sacrament  is  not  something  to 
juggle  with.  Give  to  it  the  interpretation  of  extremists  either  of 
the  spectacular  order  or  barren  sensationalism,  and  the  jugglery  of 
popery  is  always  possible  ;  but  apply  the  Reformation  ideals  and 
the  power  is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  mani])ulator  and 
placed  in  the  range  of  divinely  appointed  ordinances — the  true 
symbolism  of  a  living  actuality.  One  who  is  not  a  Lutheran 
pronounces  sacramentalism  the  remedy  for  sacerdotalism.  It  is 
its  death-blow  ;  it  abrogates  the  worship  of  the  elements.  And 
yet  the  safeguard  against  priestism  is  not  an  attenuation  of  the 
sacraments  but  their  true  interpretation. 

Transubstantiation  allows  no  })art  to  the  believer  because  its 
metaphysics  smothers  faith,  which  must  be  allowed  the  play  of 
activity  and  witnesses  to  Luther's  positive  declaration  that  "  no- 
thing can  be  substituted  for  the  divinely  imparted  gift  in  the 
sacrament,  which  the  communicant  is  to  receive  in  simple  faith. 
Not  any  human  work — whether  it  be  the  sacrificial  act  of  the 
officiating  priest,  or  the  meritorious  deeds  of  the  communicants, 
or  their  devout  religious  ardor  and  self-mortification ; "  for  tlie 
sacrament  is  not  a  sacrifice ;  it  is  the  gift  of  God  which  we  re- 
ceive with  thanksgiving. 

We  may  conclude  by  stating  that  the  sacramental  idea  in  Lu- 
theran worship  is  far  in  advance  of  a  mere  commemoration  of 
something  which  transpired  long  ago.  We  can  easily  agree  with 
a  modern  definition  that  a  simple  commemorative  sacrament  is. 
but  the  relic  of  a  dead  Christ  and  the  badge  of  a  dying  church. 
A  memorial  of  the  crucified  rather  than  a  realization  of  the 
risen  Christ  is  an  inadequate  sacrament.  It  is  not  possible  for  a 
congregation  assembled  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  engaged  in 
the  worship  of  Him  crucified  to  continue  looking  upon  the  sacra- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  XgI 

meut  as  a  mere  souvenir.  No  wonder  the  priest  steps  in  and 
attempts  to  supply  a  stirring  need  of  the  soul.  Not  even  the 
most  constructive  imagination  can  be  permanently  substituted 
for  a  living  faith.  The  advocates  of  barren  commemoration 
misuse  the  word  symbol ;  they  insist  that  it  only  reminds  of  a 
reality  signified;  without  stating  tlie  reality;  but  the  advocates 
of  the  real  presence  declare  that  the  symbol  passes  us  on  to  the 
reality  in  with  and  under  the  material  elements.  That  which 
has  turned  these  terms  into  a  battle  ground  for  controver,sies  full 
of  misunderstanding,  misapprehension,  misrepresentation,  is  em- 
phatically a  subtle  and  dangerous  rationalism.  But  we  can 
not  part  company  witli  the  spiritual  intimacy  and  profundity — 
the  mysticism,  if  you  prefer, — simply  because  the  good  man  on 
the  street  cannot  realize  it. 

The  following  are  strong  words  by  a  non-Lutheran :  Tlie  soul- 
sterilizing  and  church-destroying  memorialism  starves  and  pal- 
ters with  the  rite  without  the  courage  either  of  taking  it  in 
earnest  or  letting  it  go.  Such  paltering  is  no  better  tlian  ritual- 
ism. It  clings  to  a  rite  which  is  little  better  than  a  rite,  and  is 
slowly  ceasing  to  be  either  a  pledge,  a  seal,  or  a  power. 

It  remains  to  say  that  the  Christian  will  find  no  difficulty  in 
apprehending  the  sacramental  idea  in  Lutheran  theology  and 
worship  who  accepts  ex  animo  and  ex  fide  the  two  principles  of 
the  great  Danish  theologian :  First,  That  worship  as  a  holy  act 
finds  the  highest  expression  in  the  sacraments,  for  in  action  tliere 
is  a  living  union  of  the  internal  and  the  external,  the  invisible 
and  the  visible,  the  spiritual  and  the  corporeal.  Second,  That 
all  the  intuitions  of  Christendom  are  reflected  in  the  sacraments, 
for  in  them  Christ  communicates  Himself  not  only  spiritually, 
but  in  His  glorified  corporeity.  The  final  goal  of  God's  king- 
dom is  not  only  that  history,  but  that  nature  also  shall  be  re- 
deemed and  glorified. 

REMARKS. 

Dr.  Jacobs  :  The  sacramental  conception  is  of  wider  extent  than 
the  sacraments  themselves.     In  the  wide  sense  of  the  term,  any  act 
whereby  God  comes  to  man  and  communicates  His  grace,  is  a  sacra- 
ment.   The  Reading  of  the  Word  and  the  Preaching  of  the  Gospel 
11 


1G2  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

are  tlni^;  >acramental.  Before  the  sacrificial  element  can  be  found  in 
worship,  the  sacramental  must  be  there.  This  means,  in  plain  lan- 
guage, that  God  comes  to  man  before  man  ever  thinks  of  coming  to 
God.  This  illustrates  a  principle  we  were  discussing  yesterday,  when 
the  subject  of  Prayer  was  under  consideration.  It  was  said,  with 
entire  correctness,  that  where  God's  Word  is  not,  there  is  no  prayer. 
Prayer  is  not  just  any  address  made  to  God ;  nor  is  it  even  every  sin- 
cere desire  of  the  heart.  But  it  is  an  utterance  of  the  heart  called 
forth  by  some  particular  word  and  promise  of  God.  Prayer  is  the 
voice  of  faith ;  but  faith  is  the  response  of  the  heart  to  some  word  of 
God.  God  gives  some  promise.  Faith  takes  this  promise,  and  carries 
it  to  God.  Faith  reminds  God  of  His  promise,  and  asks  that  it  be  ful- 
filled.   The  promise  is  the  sacrament ;  the  eucharistic  sacrifice  is  faith. 

If  the  question,  then,  be  asked,  as  to  what  is  the  distinctive  charac- 
teristics of  the  sacraments  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  term,  viz.. 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  contrasted  with  the  sacramental 
element  in  the  reading  and  preaching  of  the  Word,  the  answer  is  that 
in  these  two  holy  ordinances  the  promise  of  the  Gospel  is  specialized 
or  individualized.  In  the  general  preaching  of  the  Word,  whether  in 
the  Church,  or  as  we  read  it  in  our  homes,  we  hear  that,  wide  as  is 
man's  sin  and  ruin  are  the  provisions  of  the  Gospel  for  his  recovery.  * 
Christ  has  died  for  all,  and  the  blessings  of  God's  grace  are  intended 
for  all.  The  invitation  is  addressed  to  all  who  labor  and  are  hea\7^ 
laden ;  and  the  encouragement  is  that  whosoever  will  may  come.  But, 
in  the  sacraments,  it  is  no  longer  a  general  or  indefinite  matter.  The 
offers  are  no  longer  universal  or  to  classes.  The  great  congregation 
passes  out  of  view,  and  a  particular  individual  is  singled  out.  The 
pledge  is  given  this  indindual  that  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  sonship 
with  God,  belong  to  him  as  truly  and  completely  as  though,  beside 
himself,  there  had  never  been  a  person  on  earth  that  needed  the 
assurance  of  God's  pardon  and  presence.  The  sacraments  are  intended 
to  emphasize  the  little  words  :  "  FOR  THEE." 

For  years  I  had  been  trying  to  teach  theology  before  I  learned  to 
know  the  meaning  of  a  well-known  passage  in  Luther's  Catechism. 
It  is  where  the  Catechism  teaches  that  the  chief  thing  in  the  Holy 
Supper  is  not  the  bodily  eating  and  drinking,  but  the  words :  "  For 
you."  This  I  once  thought  referred  to  the  bodily  eating  of  the  bread 
and  wine,  but  learned  that  it  was  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  that 
are  here  meant.  Precious  as  is  the  assurance  of  the  presence  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  and  their  reception  by  the  communicant, 
all  this  is  subordinate  to  the  word  of  grace  which  accompanies  this 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  1G3 

eating.  The  chief  tiling  in  the  sacrament  is  not  the  Body  and  Blood 
of  Christ,  but  what  is  still  greater,  the  promise.  It  is  as  though,  for  a 
moment,  all  others  were  excluded  from  Christ's  thought,  and  he  said  : 
"  Thou  art  a  redeemed  and  forgiven  one.  That,  in  thy  weakness,  thou 
mayest  be  sure  of  this,  I  give  thee  the  very  Body  and  Blood,  that  have 
purchased  thy  salvation."  Without  the  word  the  presence  even  of 
the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  do  not  profit.  Faith  is  strengthened, 
not  by  our  reception  of  Christ  through  the  bodily  mouth— although 
this  occurs — but  by  the  word  of  the  promise  which  it  takes  to  heart. 

Just  as  important  as  the  definition  of  an  Article  of  Faith  itself  is 
the  place  which  is  given  it  in  the  system  of  doctrine.  It  is  possible 
to  hold  correctly  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Real  Presence ;  to  avoid 
the  extremes  of  transxibstantiation  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  mere  com- 
memorative ordinance,  or  a  presence  only  to  faith  on  the  other ;  and, 
nevertheless,  entirely  misajjply  the  doctrine.  This  we  believe  to  have 
been  done  in  many  cases  by  the  ritualists  in  the  Church  of  England 
and  elsewhere.  The  mere  definition  of  the  mode  of  the  presence 
sometimes  seems  correct.  But  where  this  is  used  to  uphold  the  theory 
of  a  sacrifice  in  the  Mass,  the  entire  sacramental  conception  vanishes; 
and  transubstantiatiou  itself  would  not  make  the  perversion  much 
more  pernicious.  Or  where  the  Eeal  Presence  is  regarded  as  the  basis 
for  a  channel  for  the  impartation  of  spiritual  life  in  some  other  way 
than  through  the  words :  "  Given  and  shed  for  you  for  the  remission 
of  sins,''  received  by  faith,  the  doctrine  is  certainly  not  that  of  our 
Lutheran  Confessions. 

Dr.  Wolf.  What,  then,  do  you  think  of  the  administration  of  the 
communion  without  the  words  of  distribution? 

Dr.  Jacods.  It  is  no  communion ;  since  one  of  the  essentials,  and 
that  the  most  important,  the  word  of  promise,  is  lacking. 

Rev.  Groff  expressed  mortification  at  the  thought  that  in  the 
Lutheran  Church,  where  the  Lord's  Supper  receives  so  high  a  ])lace 
of  honor,  there  should  be  less  frequent  celebration  of  communion  than 
in  others  where  it  finds  a  much  lower  place. 

Dr.  Spaeth  gave  the  Lutheran  view  as  over  against  other  views  by 
a  quotatitm  from  Luther:  "The  Pope  makes  visible  what  God  has 
made  spiritual,  and  Carlstadt  makes  spiritual  what  God  has  made 
visible ;  but  we  go  between  and  leave  corporeal  what  God  has  made 
corporeal  and  spiritual  what  God  has  made  spiritual." 


164  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENER.U.  CONFERENCE. 

PROBLEMS  IN   FOREIGN   MISSION  WORK. 

BY   GEORGE  SCnOLL,   D.D. 

The  cause  of  Foreign  Missions  is,  in  itself,  not  a  problem.  The 
oliligation  of  the  Church  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature 
is  no  longer  questioned  by  Christian  men.  The  command  to  dis- 
ciple all  nations  is  plain  and  direct.  The  authority  of  the  Com- 
mander is  undisputed.  The  object  of  a  divine  revelation  is  to 
establish  the  Kingdom  of  God  not  in  this  land  or  on  that  conti- 
nent, but  in  the  earth.  The  Bible  is  not  only  a  Missionary  Book, 
but  it  is  the  Missionary  Book.  Tlie  Scriptures  and  Christian 
Missions  stand  or  fall  together.  While  with  bated  breath  and 
expectant  spirit,  flooded  all  about  with  the  "  glory  of  the  Lord," 
we  listen  to  the  announcement  of  the  angel  on  Bethlehem's  plains, 
"Behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy,  which  shall  be 
to  all  tlie  people,"  there  must  of  necessity  flash  into  our  inmost 
being  the  conviction  that  now  it  is  our  heaven-appointed  mission 
to  publish  these  good  tidings  of  great  joy  to  all  the  people. 

This  certainly  was  the  impression  produced  on  the  minds  of 
the  shepherds,  for  they  at  once  said  one  to  another,  "  Let  us  now 
go  even  unto  Bethlehem,  and  see  this  thing  which  has  come  to 
pass,  which  the  Lord  hath  made  known  to  us.  .  .  .  And  when 
they  saw  it,  they  made  known  concerning  the  same,  which  was 
spoken  to  them  about  this  Child." 

Here,  as  it  seems  to  me,  we  have  in  the  very  opcniiig  hours  of 
the  blessed  Advent,  flashed  out  of  the  Heavens  and  set  to  the 
music  of  the  angel  choir,  the  pictured  story  of  the  world's  evan- 
gelization: Heaven  publishing  good  tidings  of  great  joy,  those 
who  hear  verifying  the  truth  of  it  in  their  own  personal  experi- 
ences, and  then  hastening  to  tell  it  to  others. 

And  when  this  wondrous  Bal)e  of  Bethlehem,  whose  advent 
into  the  world  was  already  made  the  occasion  for  heaven's  inti- 
mation of  the  method  of  the  world's  evangelization,  had  reached 
the  full  estate  of  divine  manhood,  there  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  in  his  own  mind  as  to  why  he  had 
come  from  iieaven  or  what  might  be  his  mission  on  earth.     He 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  165 

said  to  those  about  Him,  "  Follow  Me,  and  I  will  make  you 
fishers  of  men."  Whether  in  the  way  of  command  or  invitation, 
He  was  continually  saying,  "  Follow  Me,  follow  Me."  And  then, 
after  a  suitable  preparation  for  the  work,  the  disciples  having,  in 
some  faint  measure  at  least,  caught  His  Divine  Spirit,  He  said  to 
them,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
whole  creation,"  while  in  what  might  be  called  his  prayer  of  con- 
secration He  said,  "  As  Thou  didst  send  Me  into  the  world,  even 
so  send  I  them  into  the  world." 

No,  the  cause  of  Foreign  Missions,  by  which  is  meant  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  to  heathen  nations,  is  not  a  problem  in  the  sense 
of  being  involved  in  doubt  or  uncertainty.  The  Master's  com- 
mand is,  "  Go."  It  is  not  an  open  question.  With  the  Cliristian 
it  is  not  debatable.  For  or  against  Missions  is  for  or  against  the 
Master.  So  far  as  the  Church  is  concerned  there  remains  abso- 
lutely nothing  to  be  done  except  to  carry  out  the  command  of  the 
Great  Head  of  the  Church.  But  now  this  brings  us  to  the  point 
where  the  problems  begin  to  present  themselves.  They  come 
thick  and  fast  and  are  by  no  means  easy  of  solution. 

After  almost  twenty-two  years  of  close  connection  with  and 
active  participation  in  this  department  of  the  work  of  our  Church, 
and  after  a  more  or  less  careful  study  of  the  plans  and  methods 
of  other  societies,  I  trust  it  will  not  be  regarded  presumptuous  on 
my  part  to  state  what  I  consider  to  be  the  most  vital  and  imme- 
diately practical  problems  in  Foreign  Mission  work.  In  the  time 
allotted  I  cannot,  of  course,  undertake  to  refer  to  all  the  important 
phases  of  this  subject,  but  shall  confine  myself  to  a  few  of  the 
leading  problems,  believing,  however,  that  these  will  be  recognized 
as  fairly  covering  the  whole  field  of  inquiiy. 

1.  Who  shall  engage  in  this  work?  The  effectual  call  to  labor 
in  the  foreign  field  comes  to  comparatively  few  men  and  women. 
In  one  of  the  most  active  communions  in  this  country  about  one 
in  a  thousand  of  its  communicant  membership  is  enrolled  as  a 
foreign  missionary.  There  are  other  communions  which  send 
only  one  out  of  five  thousand,  or  one  out  of  ten  thousand  of  their 
communicants  to  the  regions  beyond.  This  fact  in  itself  furnishes 
sufiicient  ground  for  the  claim  that  great  care  and  discrimination 


166  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

should  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  men  for  the  foreign  field. 
If  the  Church  can  send  only  one  in  a  thousand,  or  possibly  only 
one  in  five  or  ten  thousand,  surely  only  the  best  ought  to  be  sent. 
But  there  are  other  and  more  cogent  reasons  for  this  claim.  In 
a  country  like  this,  where  Christian  work  is  more  or  less  thor- 
oughly organized,  the  principle  of  the  division  of  labor  is  gener- 
ally recognized  and  practiced.  In  the  Church,  as  in  the  learned 
professions  and  in  business  and  industrial  pursuits,  we  have 
specialists.  The  individual  devotes  himself  to  one  particular 
department  of  work  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom,  and  by 
concentrating  all  his  powers  and  energies  on  that  one  thing  he 
may,  and  often  does,  become  an  expert  in  that  department.  In 
the  work  of  establi.«hing  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Pagan  lands, 
however,  it  is  quite  different.  In  the  beginning  of  the  work — 
and  up  to  the  present  time  it  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  advanced 
beyond  that  stage — the  individual  missionary,  if  we  may  reason- 
ably expect  his  labors  to  be  fairly  successful,  must  embrace  in  his 
personal  make-up  a  combination  of  qualities  and  qualifications 
that,  to  say  the  least,  are  somewhat  rare.  In  the  home  Church 
we  have  preachers  and  pastors,  superintendents  and  teachers, 
presidents  and  professors,  secretaries  and  treasurers,  elders  and 
deacons  and  deaconesses,  and  what  not.  The  man  who  becomes 
the  pastor  of  a  faiily  well-established  congregation  will  find  the 
majority,  if  not  all,  of  these  functionaries  already  installed  and 
at  work  in  his  parish  and  in  his  church  of  which  his  parish  is  a 
part,  while  the  man  who  is  called  to  labor  in  the  field  will  not 
only  liave  to  exercise  all  these  functions  himself,  but  is  compelled 
to  do  so  among  a  people  who  have  not  yet  learned  the  simple 
rudiments  of  Christian  faith  and  practice.  He  may  be  so  fortu- 
nate to  have  associated  with  him,  for  advice  and  counsel,  fellow- 
missionaries  of  larger  and  riper  experience ;  but  in  many  instances, 
because  of  his  isolation,  he  is  compelled  to  stand  alone.  As  a 
pioneer  in  the  work  of  establishing  the  Church  he  must  be  an 
organizer,  laying  the  fi)undation  wisely  and  well  and  shaping  the 
superstructure,  if  the  edifice  is  to  endure,  with  the  skill  of  the 
master  builder.  In  his  contact  with  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try in  which  his  field  is  located,  or  possibly  in  the  effort  to  organ- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  167 

ize  some  form  of  government  for  the  rude  people  among  whom 
his  lot  is  cast,  he  may  discover  that  even  some  of  the  instincts  and 
aptitudes  of  the  diplomat  and  statesman  do  not  come  amiss. 

He  must  also  be  physically  sound.  If  after  a  thoroughly  rigid 
examination  it  aj:)pears  that  he  is  not  normal  with  respect  to  all 
his  vital  organs,  his  application,  whatever  his  other  qualifications 
may  be,  cannot  be  entertained.  The  vital  current  must  run  deep 
and  strong  and  steady  in  the  man  who  hopes  to  endure  and  be  of 
service  in  the  tropics.  Foreign  missionaries  ought  to  be  selected 
with  as  great  care  and  intelligent  discrimination  as  that  exercised 
by  a  Kane  or  a  Greeley  or  a  Nanseu  in  picking  their  men  for  an 
Arctic  expedition. 

It  is  not  every  man  that  is  endowed  by  nature  with  an  aptitude 
for  the  acquisition  of  a  new  language,  and  as  his  usefulness  as  a 
missionary  depends  very  largely;  ou  his  ability  to  communicate 
with  the  people  among  whom  he  labors  it  is  a  matter  of  prime 
importance  that  he  be  a  man  of  linguistic  talent. 

A  high  grade  of  scholarship  is  also  called  for.  There  seems  to 
be  a  popular  im{)ression  that  a  man  of  mediocre  scholarship,  if  he 
is  only  thoroughly  pious  and  consecrated,  will  do  to  send  to  the 
heathen ;  and  one  not  unfrequently  hears  the  remark  that  such 
and  such  a  man  is  too  good  to  be  sent  to  the  foreign  field.  The 
fact  is  that  in  oriental  countries  he  will  come  in  contact  with  the 
keenest  and  most  subtle  intellects  of  the  world,  while  by  the  rude 
pagans  of  Africa  he  will  be  read  and  judged  as  by  the  penetrating 
light  of  the  Roentgen  rays.  The  claim  has  been  made  that  there 
are  no  better  judges  of  human  nature  and  none  quicker  to  detect 
intellectual  pretension  or  moral  fraud. 

An  all-embracing  love  for  souls,  a  firm  and  clear-cut  faith  and 
a  consecrated  piety  are  of  course  absolutely  essential  to  success, 
but  of  these  I  will  not  speak  at  length.  They  are  to  be  taken  for 
granted.  No  ordinarily  intelligent  or  fairly  honest  person  would 
so  much  as  take  a  single  step  in  the  direction  of  the  foreign  field 
without  them. 

But  there  is  at  least  one  m(U'e  important  qualification  that 
should  be  mentioned,  for  without  it  any  or  even  all  the  rest,  if 
they  could  be  secured  in  any  single  individual,  would  prove  un- 


168  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

productive  of  good  results.  I  refer  to  that  well-balanced  combi- 
nation of  faculties  and  powers,  that  harmonious  blending  of  reason, 
•will  and  conscience,  that  sound  practical  judgment,  which  we  call 
common  sense.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  in  the  missionary  as 
the  crown  of  all  the  other  qualities.  "  To  understand  one's  self 
and  others,  to  control  one's  self  and  others,"  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity and  make  the  best  of  it,  to  adapt  one's  self  to  new  circum- 
stances, conditions  and  surroundings,— this  is  a  faculty  that  is 
called  for  in  the  missionary  as  perhaps  in  no  other  calling  in  the 
whole  sphere  of  Christian  activity.  To  find  men  for  the  service 
who  possess  these  qualifications  in  a  fair  degree  is  the  first  problem 
that  confronts  us  in  this  work. 

2.  Where  shall  the  Missionary  do  his  workf  This  is  another  ques- 
tion that,  in  some  quarters  at  least,  is  still  calling  for  an  intelligent 
and  satisfactory  answer.     Since  the  Church  does  not  seem  to  be 
able  as  yet  to  send  more  than  one  out  of  five  or  ten  thousand  of 
her  members  into  the  foreign  field,  it  would  seem  to  be  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  place  them  where  they  are  most  needed.    If  the  aim 
of  foreign  missions  is  to  give  the  Gospel  to  those  who  have  it  not, 
then  surely  the  missionary  should  go,  primarily,  to  those  lands 
where  there  are  still  millions  of  people  who  have  never  so  much 
as  heard  the  message,  rather  than  to  countries  where  the  social, 
intellectual  and  national  life  of  the  people  is  not  only  largely 
dominated  by  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  but  which  themselves 
have  been  centres  of  Christian  activity  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  heathen  lands  for  a  hundred  years  or  more.     Neither 
the  Papal  nor  the  Trotestant   Church  have  yet  attained  that 
degree  of  spiritual  excellence  which  answers  to  the  Apostle's 
description  of  "  Not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing," 
but  that  does  not  justify  the  Propaganda  at  Rome  in  viewing  the 
United  States  as  distinctively  mission  ground  nor  some  branches 
of  the  Protestant  Church  in  this  country  in  sending  its  missioi^arics 
to  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  or  even  to  Italy,  as  long  as  there 
are  millions  of  people,  sunk  in  the  lowest  depth  of  heathenism, 
who  are  still  waiting  to  hear  the  good  news  of  salvation  for  the 
first  time.     And  not  only  is  the  missionary  to  be  sent  to  heathen 
rather  than  to  even  nominally  Christian  people,  but  preference  is 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  1C9 

to  be  given  to  such  parts  of  heathen  countries  as  have  not  yet 
been  reached  by  others.  But  such  a  spirit  of  comity  is  not  always 
observed.  Dr.  Lawrence,  in  his  mission  tour  around  the  world, 
fouud  fourteen  or  more  societies  in  Tokio,  eleven  in  Shanghai,  and 
about  as  many  in  the  cities  of  Madras,  Calcutta  and  Bombay. 
Had  he  gone  out  from  these  large  centres  into  certain  sections  of 
the  country  he  would  have  found  scores  of  little  villages  where 
rival  congregations  were  struggling  to  maintain  an  existence  each. 
to  the  hurt  and  serious  disadvantage  of  others,  while  in  an  adja- 
cent district  there  were  still  one  hundred  thousand  souls  to  whom 
no  missionary  had  ever  come.  A  true  mission  comity  would  ren- 
der such  a  thing  an  impossibility.  To  plant  in  a  heathen  village 
two  churches  that  are  not  only  weak,  but  also  contending  about 
some  minor  distinctions  that  are  utterly  foreign  to  the  thought 
and  history  of  the  people  presents  a  spectacle  that  is  anything  but 
helpful  in  the  work  of  winning  the  people  to  the  new  faith. 
As  long  as  the  inculcation  of  some  minor  peculiarity  in  doctrine 
or  church  polity,  such  as  immersion  or  apostolic  succession,  is 
thought  to  be  equally  as  important  as  the  winning  of  souls  to 
Christ,  the  Church  will  be  sadly  crippled  and  one  of  the  most 
serious  problems  connected  with  the  whole  work  will  be  awaiting 
its  solution. 

Encouraging  progress  has  been  made  in  late  years  in  the  direc- 
tion of  mission  comity  both  between  the  various  societies  in  this 
country  and  between  their  representatives  in  the  foreign  fields. 
]\Iore  and  more  the  sentiment  is  coming  to  prevail  that  if  the 
agents  of  one  Society  are  occupying  a  given  territory,  and  are 
cultivating  it  with  fair  success,  the  field  should  be  left  to  their 
exclusive  care.  On  this  point,  as  long  as  there  is  so  much  un- 
occupied territory,  there  ought  never  to  have  been  a  diflforence  of 
opinion  among  the  various  branches  of  the  Christian  Church. 

As  evidence  of  a  better  condition  of  things  prevailing  we  note 
the  organization  of  the  Conference  of  Foreign  Mission  Boards  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  which  holds  its  seventh  annual 
meeting  in  New  York  City,  January  10-12, 1899.  This  Confer- 
ence is  composed  of  representatives  of  well  nigh  all  the  Boards 
and  Societies  in  this  country  and  Canada.     Questions  of  vital 


170  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

interest  to  the  cause  are  considered  with  reference  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  work,  views  are  exchanged,  plans  of  work  are 
discussed,  a  hroad  survey  of  the  field  taken  and  thus  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  different  Boards  are  more  and  more  couiiug  to 
see  eye  to  eye  on  all  the  gi'eat  questions  that  are  essential  to  the 
success  of  the  work.  The  General  Conference  held  in  Loudon  in 
1888,  the  Decennial  Conference  of  all  Protestant  missionaries  in 
India  and  various  other  conferences  of  a  similar  character,  are 
doing  much  toward  bringing  about  a  practicably  operative  spirit 
of  comity  in  the  work.  Such  united  effort  of  Christendom  in  the 
prosecution  of  mission  work  is  needed  as  an  evidencing  power. 
The  task  of  the  world's  evangelization  is  such  a  stupendous  one 
that  it  calls  for  the  most  careful  distribution  of  territory,  division 
of  labor  and  economy  of  expenditure  and  effort.  Any  selection 
of  a  missionary  field,  or  distribution  of  missionary  force,  or  ex- 
penditure of  missionary  funds  that  aims  at  anything  else  than  the 
giving  of  the  gospel  to  the  largest  number  of  those  who  have  it 
not  and  who,  except  as  the  foreign  missionary  brings  it  to  them, 
have  no  possible  chance  of  hearing  it,  does  not  seem  to  be  under 
the  guidance  and  control  of  sanctified  common  sense. 

3.  TJie  Problem  of  Education  is  perhaps  second  in  importance 
to  none  in  the  work  of  foreign  missions.  Wherever  the  mission- 
ary has  gone  educational  work  has  been  established  primarily 
with  the  object  of  preparing  the  converts  to  do  evangelistic  work. 
In  some  instances  the  school  work  seems  to  have  outgrown  other 
forms  of  mission,  though  not  without  protest  from  some  of  the 
workers  in  the  field.  These  argue  that  the  divine  command  and 
commission  is  to  preach  the  gospel  and  not  to  teach  school.  In 
well  nigh  every  important  station  the  claims  of  these  two  depart- 
ments of  work  have  been  urged  by  their  respective  advocates 
with  great  earnestness. 

It  must  be  evident,  however,  to  every  thoughtful  person  that  if 
the  gospel  is  ever  to  be  preached  to  the  millions  who  are  stiU  in 
heathenism  it  must  be  done  chiefly  through  a  native  ministry. 
Such  a  ministry,  if  the  native  Church  is  to  become  self-propagat- 
ing and  self-directing,  must  be  more  or  less  thoroughly  educated. 
And  not  the  ministry  only,  but  the  membership  as  well.    Indeed, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  171 

in  many  of  the  fields  some  degree  of  education  is  an  absolute  pre- 
requisite to  the  introduction  of  the  Gospel.  Very  little  can  be 
expected  in  the  way  of  Christian  life  and  character,  and  still  less 
of  activity  and  growth,  from  people  who  cannot  even  read  the 
word  of  God  ;  and  in  general,  other  things  being  equal,  the  prog- 
ress and  stability  of  the  Church  will  be  in  proportion  to  the 
intelligence  of  her  ministry  and  laity. 

The  great  bulwark  of  heathenism  is  ignorance  and  superstition, 
and  of  these  education  seems  to  be  the  universal  solvent.  A 
purely  scientific  education  has  brought  many  a  student  to  the 
point  of  utter  dissatisfaction  with  his  system  of  religious  faith,  and 
has  thus  cleared  the  way  for  something  better,  while  many,  in  a 
caste-ridden  country  like  India,  can  be  reached  only  through  the 
schools.  So  important  is  this  form  of  missionary  eftort  regarded 
that  one  of  large  experience,  who  has  been  eminently  successful 
in  district  or  evangelistic  work,  declares  that  in  beginning  a  new 
work  he  would  rather  have  in  a  village  a  school  without  a 
church  than  a  church  without  a  school.  The  command  is  indeed 
to  preach  the  gospel,  but  the  missionary  who,  in  his  school,  trains 
up  an  efficient  corps  of  native  evangelists  is  filling  the  spirit  of 
this  command,  and  that,  possibly,  in  a  much  larger  measure  than 
the  one  who  engages  in  the  direct  work  of  preaching.  In  a  coun- 
try where  millions  of  dollars  are  spent  on  educational  enterprises, 
and  where  the  aim  is  to  give  every  person  the  opjwrtunity  of 
securing  an  education,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  defend  the  school, 
and  yet  there  have  been  and  still  are  some  very  excellent  mission- 
aries who  would  place  the  emphasis  entirely  on  evangelistic  eflfort 
through  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  who  have  little  or  no 
sympathy  with  educational  work  in  general. 

4.  The  Native  Church  presents  another  problem  for  our  con- 
sideration. It  has  perhaps  more  difficulties  connected  with  it 
than  any  other.  On  what  general  })lan  should  it  be  organized  ? 
What  connection  with  the  home  church  should  be  maintained  ? 
To  what  extent,  if  any,  should  it  be  controlled  and  governed  by 
the  home  church  ? 

What  should  be  the  relation  of  the  difl^erent  mission  churches 
in  a  given  field  to  each  other?     What  shall  be  the  condition  of 


172  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

entrance,  and  what  standard  shall  be  maintained  ?  These  and 
other  questions  will  continue  to  come  up  for  solution  as  long  as 
beginnings  are  being  made  in  the  organization  and  building  up 
of  the  church  among  those  gathered  out  of  heathenism. 

We  will  have  made  some  progress  toward  the  solution  of  this 
problem  by  getting  a  clear  idea  of  the  aim  and  object  of  Chris- 
tian missions.  Is  it  the  salvation  of  sinners,  the  conversion  of 
the  world  ?  That  is  the  aim  of  all  religious  effort  and  cannot, 
therefore,  be  said  to  be  the  distinctive  aim  of  missions.  Not  only- 
are  souls  to  be  brought  to  Christ,  but  tl)ey  arc  also  to  be  organ- 
ized into  churches,  and  then  built  up  in  all  the  graces  of  the 
Christian  life  and  so  trained  in  Christian  activity  as  to  make 
those  churches  an  agency  for  the  further  propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  along  all  lines  of  Christian  effort. 

The  Church  is  God's  agency  for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and 
missions  not  only  have  their  origin,  but  their  end  in  the  Church. 
In  other  words,  the  aim  of  missions  must  be  to  establish  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  earth.  As  Dr.  Lawrence  puts  it, 
"  The  primary  aim  of  missions  is  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  all 
lands ;  the  ultimate  aim  is  to  plant  the  Church  in  all  lands. 
When  they  have  done  that  their  work  is  accomplished.  Then 
the  Church  of  each  land  thus  planted  must  win  its  own  people 
to  Christ.  The  converts  must  convert.  The  new  Church  must 
evangelize  and  Christianize.  India,  China,  Japan  are  each 
to  be  turned  to  Christ,  not  by  missions,  but  by  the  Indian,  the 
Chinese,  the  Japanese  churches,  when  these  churches  shall  have 
been  securely  planted  by  missions." 

The  Rev.  Henry  Venn,  former  Secretary  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society,  has  expressed  it  in  yet  more  condensed  and 
classic  form.  He  says,  "  The  object  of  missions  is  the  develop- 
ment of  native  churches  with  a  view  to  their  ultimate  settlement 
upon  a  self-supporting,  self-governing  and  self -extending  system." 
By  steadily  keeping  this  end  in  view,  we  will  be  materially 
assisted  in  determining  what  course  to  pursue  in  the  organization 
and  management  of  the  native  Church.  It  is  evident  that  from 
the  beginning  its  connection  is  very  close  with  and  dependent  on 
the  home  Church.     But  soon  it  will  be  seen  that  the  conditions 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  173 

iu  India  or  Cliiua  or  Africa  are  so  much  unlike  those  iu  Christian 
Europe  or  America  that  the  one  cannot  be  modelled  after  the 
other  excej)t  in  its  more  general  features.  The  great  underlying 
principles  of  the  Gospel  will  apply  equally  well  to  Oriental  forms 
and  customs  as  to  the  Occidental,  and  even  better,  since  the 
Scriptures  have  come  to  us  in  an  Oriental  setting.  Christianity  is 
not  intended  to  denationalize  any  people.  It  is  for  the  Icelander 
or  Esquimo  in  his  igloo  as  well  as  for  the  African  in  his  kraal, 
but  both  cannot  be  cast  together  in  the  same  mold  as  far  as  the 
organized  body  of  believers  is  concerned.  As  regards  admittance 
into  the  Church,  comparatively  few  come  into  it  from  disinter- 
ested and  lofiy  motives,  but  coming  as  they  may  they  are  not  to 
be  sent  back  into  heathenism,  but  taken  into  the  school  of  Christ 
and  instructed  in  Him.  Possibly,  for  years  the  standard  cannot 
be  made  as  high,  as  with  those  of  us  who  are  the  pi'oduct  of  a 
thousand  years  of  Christian  evolution.  As  rapidly  as  ])0?sible 
the  native  Church  should  be  brought  to  a  condition  of  self-sup- 
port, and  this  not  particularly  to  relieve  the  home-land.  It  is  a 
distinct  and  positive  wrong  to  a  Church  to  continue  its  support 
longer  than  may  be  absolutely  necessary  to  give  it  an  adequate 
start  iu  its  corporate  life,  for,  like  its  Great  Head,  it  exists,  "  not 
to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister." 

With  self-support  must  also  come  self-government  and  self- 
propagation.  In  this  country  we  have  taken  high  and  decided 
grounds  against  anything  like  foreign  control  in  Church  and 
State.  The  time  was  when  we  welcomed  missionaries  from 
Europe,  and  there  was  need  of  them,  but  now  we  stand  alone 
without  any  organic  connection  with  the  mother  country  or 
mother  Church.  Tiie  sooner  that  is  the  case  with  India  and 
Africa,  with  China  and  Japan,  the  better  will  it  be  for  the  good 
of  the  Church  in  those  countries. 

It  is  also  a  grave  question  as  to  the  extent  to  which  it  will  be 
wise  to  teach  those  denominational  peculiarities  that,  throughout 
Christendom,  are  recognized  as  non-essential  to  human  salvation. 
Shall  only  the  essential  and  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity  be 
given  to  the  converts  and  they  be  allowed,  by  natural  process  of 
ecclesiastical  development,  to  organize  themselves  into  a  native 


174  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Church  with  such  peculiarities  of  goverumcut  and  usages  as  may 
best  comport  -with  the  circumstances  of  the  situation,  or  shall  the 
future  Church  in  India  or  China  or  Japan  present  the  almost 
endless  divisions  that  characterize  the  Church  in  this  country? 
In  India  thirteen  different  Presbyterian  bodies  are  at  work.  Is 
it  necessary  or  wise  to  impose  upon  the  Hindoos  the  necessity  of 
supporting  thirteen  different  ecclesiastical  establishments,  and 
thus  perpetuate  in  tliat  country  differences  which  here  at  home 
are  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance?  Shall 
the  Leipsic,  the  Burlin,  the  Gossner,  the  Basel,  the  Hermansburg, 
the  General  Council,  the  General  Synod  and  other  Lutheran 
missions  in  India  form,  in  the  not  far  distant  future,  one  grand 
united  Lutheran  Church  in  that  country,  or  shall  we  largely 
waste  our  strength  and  minimize  our  influence  by  standing  apart 
and  emphasizing  the  minor  points  that  separate  us  ?  The  mis- 
sionaries of  these  respective  branches  of  our  Church  have  sat 
together  in  conference  in  India,  even  as  we  do  to-day,  and  they 
were  able  to  see  eye  to  eye,  on  all  questions  referring  to  the 
Christlike  work  that  took  them  to  that  country.  INIay  we  not 
hope  that  the  ranks  of  our  workers  in  India  may  never  be  in- 
vaded by  the  ecclesiastical  niicroscopist  who  can  point  out  differ- 
ences where  none  appear  to  the  unaided  eye ;  l)ut  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  delightful  spirit  of  harmony  and  singleness  of 
aim  and  purpose  tliat  characterized  the  conforonce  of  our  repre- 
sentatives in  India  may  somehow  be  communicated  to  the  home 
Churcli  in  yet  larger  and  ever-increasing  measure? 

THE  COMMON  BOOK. 

BY  L.  A.  FOX,  D.D. 

By  the  Common  Book,  as  announced  in  the  programme,  is 
meant  one  book  of  worship  for  all  Lutherans  using  the  same  lan- 
guage. "We  are  to  consider  an  eminently  practical  subject,  and 
we  ought  to  look  at  it  in  an  earnest,  practiciil  way. 

1.  The  Need  of  a  Common  Book.  We  need  it  for  several 
reasons. 

a.  We  need  it  as  a  bond  of  union.     Difficult  as  it  is  for  stran- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  175 

gers  to  understand  it,  our  Church  is  not  made  up  of  a  number  of 
different  denominations  or  branches,  but  is  one  communion. 
There  are  not  different  names,  but  one  common  name:  Lutheran^ 
We  are  not  Old  School  and  New  School,  not  American  and 
German,  not  High  Church  and  Low  Church,  not  Northern  and 
Southern,  not  General  Synod  and  General  Council,  Ohio  and 
Missouri  Lutherans,  but  all  are  simjily  Lutherans.  We  have  one 
common  history,  of  which  we  are  all  alike  proud.  We  have  one 
common  confessional  basis :  The  Augsburg  Confession.  Some  of 
us,  it  is  true,  have  subscribed  to  the  other  confessions,  but  only  so 
far  as  they  are  fuller  statements  of  the  Augustana.  We  have  a 
common  book  for  the  instruction  of  the  young :  Luther's  Cate- 
chism. We  have  one  common  spirit  ond  life.  The  evident 
extremes  among  us  have  more  in  common  than  either  extreme 
has  with  the  Church  with  which  it  seems  to  have  most  affinity. 
Once  imbued  with  the  Lutheran  spirit,  one  can  never  feel  at  home 
in  any  other  Church.  We  have  different  organizations — different 
general  bodies,  different  theological  seminaries,  different  publish- 
ing houses,  different  quarterlies,  different  hymn  books,  diffisrent 
Sunday-school  lessons,  etc.,  but  not  one  of  us  will  allow  that  there 
are  different  churches.  We  have  only  one  clerical  register.  Our 
ministers  are  all  Lutheran  ministers,  our  Synods  are  all  Lutheran 
Synods.     We  all  are  members  of  the  same  great  Church. 

But  this  unity  is  not  fully  realized.  We  have  a  great  many 
divisions.  We  have  the  General  Synod,  the  General  Council,  the 
Synodical  Conference,  the  United  Synod  of  the  South,  the  Joint 
Synod  of  Ohio  and  the  Iowa  Synod,  besides  thirteen  or  fourteen 
independent  Synods.  There  are  various  reasons  for  these  separate 
organizations.  Some  of  them  are  formed  chiefly  on  geographical 
lines.  This  is  true  of  tlie  United  Synod  of  the  South  and  the 
Texas  Synod.  Some  of  them  grew  out  of  a  difference  in  lan- 
guage. This  is  true  <^f  the  Swedish  and  Norwegian  Synods.  But 
others  are  based  upon  different  conceptions  of  the  common  Con- 
fession and  of  methods  of  work.  It  must  be  added  that  personal 
feelings  enter  as  an  appreciable  element,  at  least  into  the  preserva- 
tion of  some  of  them.  Two  of  our  general  bodies  occupy  precisely 
the  same  territory.      Not  infrequently  congregations  of  two  or 


170  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

three  different  synods  are  fouDd  in  the  same  town.  Mauy  of 
these  synods  have  no  association  with  each  other.  When  their 
work  is  contiguous,  there  is  an  unseemly  rivalry,  and  often  bitter- 
ness of  feeliug.  Our  Church  is  broken  up  into  different  parlies. 
There  is  something  among  us  very  much  like  what  Paul  called 
schism  in  the  Corinthian  Church. 

This  division  into  uusym})athetic  parties  is  unnatural.  The 
members  of  one  household  are  divided  against  each  other.  Breth- 
ren are  out  of  harmony  and  have  sometimes  fallen  into  discussions 
so  heated  as  often  to  appear  like  quarrels.  Our  points  of  agree- 
ment far  outnumber  and  outweigh  our  points  of  difference,  but  in 
our  zeal  to  emphasize  the  difference  we  lose  sight  of  the  agree- 
ment. Different  shades  of  conceptions  completely  conceal  the 
substance  of  the  common  faith.  Other  churches  with  fui-  more 
widely  divergent  tendencies  and  with  much  greater  and  more 
serious  extremes  remain  in  organic  union ;  but  we  wrangle  and 
split  into  hostile  parties  over  matters  of  relatively  little  importance. 

This  division  is  injurious.  We  lose  the  moral  force  of  a  great 
concentrated  body.  We  divide  our  efforts  and  weaken  ourselves. 
"NVe  squander  money  in  supporting  rival  institutions.  We  set  up 
rival  congregations  and  build  separate  churches  and  support  sep- 
arate pastors,  when  there  ought  to  be  but  one  strong  church.  A 
party  spirit  is  engendered  and  fostered  by  repeated  conflicts,  and 
we  are  often  moved  more  by  that  spirit  than  we  are  by  a  love  for 
the  Church.  Sometimes  a  feeling  of  bitterness  is  manifested,  and 
we  let  our  members  go  into  another  denomination  rather  than 
encourage  them  to  go  into  the  congregation  of  an  opposite  party. 
It  is  a  suicidal  policy,  and  we  have  lost  thousands  of  members 
because  of  it.  Our  growth  has  been  marvelous,  but  we  must  not 
mistake  the  cause.  It  is  due  to  immigration  moi'e  than  to  wise 
and  aggressive  work.  If  Lutlierans  had  censed  to  come  to  Amer- 
ica a  half  a  century  ago  we  would  be  still  one  of  the  small  and 
insignificant  denominations  of  our  country. 

We  inherit  weakness  in  organization  from  our  Reformation 
fathers.  Among  Luther's  wonderful  and  diversified  gifts,  the 
organizing  faculty  was  wanting.  He  was  strangely  lackiug  in 
even  an  appreciation  of  its  importance.     In  this  he  was  very 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  J  77 

much  uulike  Calvin.  Ho  might  have  seen  its  power  in  the 
Roman  Church  and  in  the  Kefonued  Churches ;  but  either  he 
did  not,  or  he  was  afraid  of  it.  He  relied  so  implicitly  upon  the 
power  of  the  truth  that  he  overlooked  or  rejected  subsidiary 
agencies.  Not  until  the  work  had  gone  on  for  several  years  and 
there  were  some  sad  disturbances  through  the  Anabaptist 
influence  did  he  undertake  anything  like  a  system  of  congi-ega- 
tional  visitation.  Even  that  was  merely  temporary.  He  turned 
over  to  the  rulers  of  the  State  what  properly  belonged  to  the 
Church,  and  left  each  sovereign  to  govern  the  congregations  ac- 
cording to  his  own  plan.  Each  State  had  its  own  ecclesiastical 
government,  and  when  a  ruler  changed  his  faith  he  carried  with 
him  his  country.  The  Jesuits  availed  themselves  of  this  policy, 
and  insinuated  themselves  into  royal  families  to  become  teachers 
of  the  heirs  apparent,  and  made  perverts  to  Rome.  But  still 
there  was  no  radical  change  of  policy.  Luther's  greatness  was 
so  overshadowing  that  if  there  were  men  who  had  a  gift  for  or- 
ganizing, it  never  became  operative.  His  spirit  was  so  masterful 
that  it  has  indelibly  stamped  itself  upon  the  Church,  and  in  this 
respect  we  have  never  been  able  to  rise  above  his  defect.  He  was 
right  in  holding  that  the  supreme  power  is  in  the  word  of  God  ; 
but  he  was  wrong  in  supposing  that  there  was  no  need  of  access- 
ory instrumentalities.  Superior  as  we  believe  we  are  in  many 
respects  to  the  Reformed  Church,  we  must  acknowledge  ourselves 
its  inferior  in  thoroughness  of  organization.  We  have  sorely 
felt  the  effects  of  this  inferiority. 

We  are  by  no  means  ready  yet  to  break  up  our  Synod ical  or- 
ganizations and  reorganize  upon  strictly  geographical  and  lin- 
guistic lines.  We  may  not  be  able  to  do  it  for  several  genera- 
tions to  come.  It  takes  a  long  time  for  feelings  created  by  con- 
flicts to  die  and  old  contests  to  be  forgotten.  Long  standing 
wounds  frequently  fretted  by  friction  are  not  soon  healed. 
Cherished  crotchets  are  not  readily  al)andoned.  But  if  organic 
unity  is  impossible,  a  fuller  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  faith 
and  spirit  is  not.  We  are  already  beginning  to  realize  something 
of  the  unnaturalness  of  our  divisions,  and  there  are  movements 
already  commenced  towards  closer  relations.  We  look  with  great 
12 


178  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

pleasure  upon  tliis  part  of  the  work  of  the  Luther  League.  Our 
young  people  fraternize  and  co-operate.  There  are  other  but  less 
conspicuous  associations  in  which  men  of  different  parties  meet 
in  informal  and  fraternal  conference.  The  sense  of  unity  Iving 
behind  these  external  divisions  is  growing,  and  we  are  getting 
ready  for  a  common  book  of  worship,  which  will  bind  us  still 
more  closely  together. 

Our  different  books  have  done  a  great  deal  towards  weakening 
the  sense  of  Lutheran  unity  and  keeping  alive  our  unnatural  and 
hurtful  divisions.  With  a  separate  book  for  every  party,  so  much 
like  different  denominations,  our  own  people  as  well  as  strangers 
find  it  diffcult  to  l)elieve  that  we  are  not  so  many  different  Luth- 
eran denominations.  But  with  one  common  book,  a  Lutheran 
attending  the  service  of  any  party  or  Synod,  and  finding  the  same 
forms  and  the  same  hymns,  will  feel  that  he  is  at  home  in  the 
same  great  family.  When  we  have  grown  warm  over  our  dis- 
cussions we  will  take  up  the  same  book  and  realize  that  after  all 
we  are  brethren.  We  can  appeal  to  facts  in  jiroof  of  the  unify- 
ing influence  of  such  a  book.  It  may  be  seen  in  the  Prayer  Book 
of  the  I{)piscopal  Church.  In  England  narrow  Tractarianism  and 
broad  Liberalism,  Pusey  and  Maurice,  gather  themselves  under 
its  fold.  In  America  we  have  tendencies  closely  approximating 
Romanism  on  the  one  hand  and  Unitarianism  on  the  other,  kept 
in  the  same  communion.  The  bond  of  union  is  not  so  much  the 
Episcopacy  as  the  Prayer  Book.  Without  the  Prayer  Book  the 
Episcojjal  college  would  dissolve.  We  may  see  the  effects  of  a 
common  book  in  the  United  Synod  of  the  South.  Our  ministers 
were  educated  at  different  seminaries,  some  at  Philadelphia,  some 
at  Getty.-burg,  some  at  Chicago,  some  at  Newberry  and  some 
at  other  places.  We  have  some  who  sympathize  more  with  the 
General  Council,  some  more  with  the  General  Synod  and  some 
more  with  the  Synodical  Conference.  We  have  some  who  hold 
in  almost  extreme  reverence  the  Book  of  Concord,  and  some  who 
cherish  the  memory  of  the  Definite  Platform.  But  we  all  work 
together  in  harmony,  and  there  is  no  bond  except  our  Book  of 
Worship  and  our  misdon  in  Japan.  The  Tennessee  Synod,  which 
witlilioMs  full  cooperation,  has  a  different  book.    Can  we  not  see 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  179 

the  same  influence  already  in  the  effects  of  the  Common  Service? 
We  do  not  pro[)ose  to  substitute  a  book  for  the  Lutheran  faith  as 
the  fundamental  tie.  We  do  not  want  a  book  like  the  Prayer 
Book  with  its  cast-iron  rubrics.  But  we  do  need  a  common  book 
as  an  expression  of  unity  and  as  an  accessory  bond. 

h.  We  need  a  Common  Book  for  the  hi,2:hest  development  of  the 
religious  life  of  onr  people.  Worship  is  the  expression  of  the 
religious  character.  It  is  the  divine  life  in  us  reaching  out  to- 
wards God.  In  somewhat  Hegelian  language,  but  not  in  the 
Hegelian  sense,  it  is  the  divine  nature  of  which  we  have  been 
made  partakers  seeking  to  return  to  God.  This  life  is  given  and 
increased  only  through  the  Word  and  Sacraments.  But  worship 
reacts  upon  that  life,  and  like  physical  exercise  in  the  physical 
life,  or  like  the  effort  to  impart  instruction  in  the  intellectual  life, 
worship  develops  it.  Every  Christian  has  felt  this  in  both  his 
public  and  private  devotions.  In  his  closet  when  he  begins  to 
speak  to  God  about  his  feelings  of  reverence,  of  gratitude,  and  of 
sinfulness  and  wants,  these  feelings  become  deeper.  In  the 
sanctuary  his  worship  is  joined  with  others  and  he  is  lifted  out  of 
his  own  little  sphere  into  a  fuller  life.  His  heart  is  expanded 
into  broader  sympathies,  wider  interests  and  deeper  affections. 
His  piety  has  a  larger  field.  But  the  form  of  the  service  has 
much  to  do  with  this  reflex  influence.  The  better  the  expression, 
the  more  he  is  helped.  To  accomplish  most  in  this  direction  our 
book  of  worship  should  be  the  voice  of  the  great  Church. 

No  one  of  our  Lutheran  parties  rei)reseuts  the  whole  of  the 
Lutheran  life.  There  is  narrowness  and  littleness  about  each 
one  of  them.  The  horizon  of  each  is  contracted.  One  may  be 
better  than  the  others,  may  be  nearer  the  true  Lutheran  spirit, 
but  not  one  of  them  fully  represents  it.  Each  one  in  some  re- 
spect is  a  better  exponent  of  one  of  the  various  phases  of  the 
Lutheran  life  than  any  other.  We  can  have  the  best  service 
only  when  we  all  unite  to  form  it.  When  Edward  I  established 
Parliament  he  gave  this  common-sense  reason  for  it :  "  What 
concerns  all  should  be  approved  by  all."  The  Constitution  pf 
our  National  Government  was  framed  by  compromises.  It  was 
formed   by  the  representatives  of  the  different  sections  of  this 


180  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

country,  who  gave  up  sectional  preferences  and  interests.  No 
one  Avas  perfectly  satisfied  with  it,  because  it  did  not  embody  his 
individual  notions  of  what  the  government  should  be.  It  is  not 
perfect,  but  it  is  a  wonderful  instrument.  Without  amendment, 
save  only  in  the  manner  of  electing  the  President,  it  directed  the 
administration  of  our  national  affairs  until  after  the  Civil  War. 
Even  then  there  was  need  of  nothing  except  some  added  articles 
to  meet  the  new  conditions.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  expanded  to 
meet  even  the  radical  new  conditions  into  which  the  last  war  has 
involved  us.  It  was  far  better  than  any  one  of  the  great  states- 
men of  that  day  could  have  framed.  Washington,  great  and 
broad,  honest  and  j^atriotic  as  he  Avas,  could  not  have  done  it. 
The  Constitution  was  the  product  of  the  great  body  of  the  people, 
the  will  of  the  nation.  So  the  best  Common  Book  must  be  the 
product,  not  of  an  individual,  not  of  a  party,  but  of  the  whole 
Church. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  Common  Book  is  so  important  to  the 
development  of  the  life  of  the  Church,  we  owe  it  to  the  Church 
to  secure  it.  We  are  responsible  for  all  the  possibilities  in  us. 
But  there  is  even  a  higher  view.  The  Lutheran  Church  is  not 
an  end,  Init  a  means.  It  has  no  reason  for  its  existence,  and  no 
claim  upon  our  affections  and  service,  except  so  far  as  it  makes 
men  Christians.  We  love  it  and  work  for  it,  because  it  promotes 
the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men.  Will  this  book  make  us 
better  and  holier?  If  the  answer  be  affirmative,  the  duty  is  un- 
questionable. 

c.  We  need  a  Common  Book  to  awaken  a  deeper  Church  love. 
This  follows  necessarily  from  tlie  preceding  facts.  Whatever 
will  give  them  a  new  sense  of  the  greatness  and  unity  of  the 
Church,  and  especially  whatever  will  create  in  them  a  higher 
spiritual  life,  will  have  their  profoundest  affection.  But  there  are 
also  other  things  which  emphasize  this  point.  We  believe  that 
the  Lutheran  Church  is  the  purest  part  of  the  Church  on  earth, 
and  therefore  we  want  to  make  the  largest  possible  number  of 
Lutherans,  and  to  lead  them  to  a  true  appreciation  of  the  Luth- 
eran Church.  We  may  have  our  i)eo])le  very  decided  and  j^si- 
tive  Lutherans  Avithout  being  bigots ;  love  it  as  the  best  Church, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  181 

without  believing  that  it  is  the  only  Church.  We  must  not  forget 
that  the  great  glory  of  our  Church  is  her  pure  faith.  Her  creed 
constitutes  her  essence.  We  can  make  true  and  staunch  Luth- 
erans only  by  thorough  indoctrination.  We  must  rely  primarily 
upon  thorough  catechization.  Our  people  love  our  Church  as 
they  understand  her  doctrines.  But  our  faith  is  not  our  sole 
glory.  We  have  also  a  pure  worship.  Our  liturgy  and  our 
hymns  have  been  little  less  admired  by  candid  non-Lutheran 
scholars  than  by  ourselves.  A  Common  Book  can  be  made  the 
pride  of  our  people.  Not  every  one  can  be  brought  to  the  clear 
understanding  of  our  distinctive  doctrines,  but  all  can  be  taught 
to  love  a  Common  Book.  We  do  not  have  many  of  the  secondary 
means  of  a  Church  love.  We  have  no  college  of  bishops  to  rally 
us.  We  have  no  great  institutions.  We  are  strangely  destitute 
of  many  of  those  attractions  which  our  neighbors  have.  There 
is  not  much  probability  that  we  could  have  them  very  soon  even 
if  we  desired.  But  we  can  have  a  Common  Book  that  will 
awaken  a  devotion  to  the  Church  deeper  than  any  episcopate  or 
great  institution  can. 

2.  The  Contents  of  the  Common  Book.  It  would  be  very 
presumptuous  in  any  one  of  us  to  attempt  to  say  just  what  that 
work  should  be,  but  one  may  be  pardoned  for  suggesting  a  gen- 
eral outline  of  what  it  should  contain.  Indeed  we  have  approved 
plans. 

While  Rev.  Dr.  D.  M.  Gilbert  was  the  youthful  pastor  in 
Staunton,  Va.,  he  proi)osed  through  the  Southern  Lutheran  a 
Book  of  Worship  for  the  Southern  Lutheran  Church.  He  sug- 
gested that  it  contain  a  Liturgical  Service,  CEcumenical  Creeds, 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  Luther's  Small  Catechism,  some  Psalms 
for  responsive  reading,  ^Ministerial  Acts,  and  a  collection  of 
Hynuis.  The  suggestion  was  adopted  by  the  Southern  General 
Synod,  and  the  Book  of  AYorship  was  formed.  That  book 
passed  over  from  the  General  Synod  to  the  United  Synod  of  the 
South.  We  have  adopted  the  Common  Service  and  incorporated 
it,  but  in  other  respects,  the  book  remains  what  it  was  when 
adopted  thirty-five  years  ago.  We  of  the  Southern  section  do  not 
offer  our  book,  but  our  plan. 


182  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

We  think  tliat  tlio  Common  Book  ou^ht  to  have  the  Coniuion 
Service.  It  has  been  already  adopted  and  offers  itself  as  tlie  first 
step  toward  a  Common  Book.  It  may  not  be  just  what  some  of 
us  prefer,  but  now  that  it  has  been  officially  adopted  by  our  gen- 
eral bodies,  it  ought  to  be  accepted  by  all  of  our  pastors.  No  one 
has  said  that  it  contains  any  doctrinal  errors,  or  that  it  is  really 
un-Lutheran,  and  therefore  no  great  tax  is  laid  upon  any  man's 
conscience.  It  allows  us  to  omit  certain  points,  provided  we  fol- 
low the  general  order.  It  takes  away,  therefore,  very  little  of 
any  man's  liberty.  The  discussion  has  been  chiefly  whether  cer- 
tain quite  subordinate  points  should  be  retained  or  not.  To  some 
it  seems  to  be  an  effort  to  determine  the  difference  between  tweedle 
dee  and  tAveedle  dum.  If  we  persist  in  contending  for  the  unim- 
portant, we  doom  ourselves  to  our  present  divided  condition.  "We 
sacrifice  the  whole  Church  on  the  altar  of  a  party.  If  Patrick 
Henry  and  George  Clinton  could  have  had  their  way  about  States' 
rights,  and  Rhode  Island  have  remained  out  of  the  Union  because 
it  wanted  to  regulate  its  own  commerce,  there  had  never  been  this 
great  nation  of  the  United  States.  Ruin  awaited  all.  If  men 
then  made  compromises  for  the  sake  of  the  public  good,  can  not 
we  for  the  sake  of  the  eternal  welfare  of  souls?  They  did  it  to 
secure  the  well-being  of  the  State,  and  shall  not  we  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Church?  They  surrendered  their  individual  narrowness, 
and  rose  into  a  broad  patriotism,  and  cannot  we,  that  we  may  ri^e 
up  to  a  wider  Lutheran  life?  The  Common  Service  is  not  perfect, 
but  time  and  grace  will  perfect  it. 

The  Common  Book  ought  to  contain  the  CEcumenical  Creeds, 
the  Augsburg  Confession  and  Luther's  Catechism.  The  reasons 
for  this  are  so  manifest  that  they  do  not  need  enumeration. 

The  Common  Book  ought  to  have  orders  for  ministerial  acts, 
both  for  convenience  and  instruction.  This  is  the  first  difficulty. 
We  seem  to  be  quite  far  from  agreement  upon  these  forms.  The 
general  bodies  have  found  difiiculty  in  agreeing  upon  tliem  for 
themselves,  and  it  seems  much  more  difficult  for  all  to  do  it.  But 
the  difficulty  is  not  insuperable.  These  foiras  are  not  of  vital 
importance.  We  could  agree  upon  certain  tentative  ones,  and 
allow  large  liberty  to  pastors  in  using  them;  or  we  might  allow 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  183 

the  general  bodies  to  have  special  editions  of  the  Common  Book 
containing  their  own  forms.  In  the  Southern  Church  we  have  no 
trouble  in  this  matter.  Some  liave  other  forms,  but  most  of  us 
use  those  recommended  for  the  time  by  the  United  Synod.  Few 
of  us  think  that  they  are  the  best  possible,  but  until  we  have 
something  better,  they  will  do.  We  have  grown  so  accustomed 
to  this  state  of  things  that  we  do  not  quite  appreciate  the  difficul- 
ties of  some  of  our  brethren. 

The  Common  Book  nmst  have  a  common  hymnal.  This  is  the 
second,  and  perhaps  the  greatest,  difficulty.  Some  of  the  Synods 
are  so  pleased  with  their  present  collections  that  tliey  think  they 
could  accept  no  other.  Some  others  are  changing  theirs,  and 
would  not  object  very  much  to  an  entirely  new  one.  We  of  the 
Southern  Church,  wliile  offering  our  plan,  do  not  offer  our  hymns. 
They  were  collected  by  a  man  regarded  as  the  best  hynmologist 
among  us,  but  some  of  us  regard  this  collection  as  the  very  poor- 
est in  use  in  any  part  of  the  Church.  We  are  exceedingly 
anxious  for  something  better,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  idea  of  a  Common  Book  originated  among  us. 

There  is  place  for  the  suggestion  of  only  a  few,  very  few,  of  the 
principles  upon  which  this  common  hymnal  should  be  formed. 

It  is  a  book  for  use.  It  should  have  only  such  hymns  as  a 
majority  of  our  congregations  can  sing.  There  are  translations  of 
German  hymns  loved  by  our  fathers,  and  we  may  like  to  have 
them  for  their  historic  interest,  but  the  reason  is  not  sufficient  for 
retaining  them.  Our  children  love  only  what  they  sing,  and  can 
be  made  to  take  interest  in  no  others. 

The  hymns  should  be  orthodox.  They  should  be  really  hymns, 
and  not  merely  good  religious  poetry.  How  far  admonishing 
one  another  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs  can  go  is  a 
difficult  question. 

Our  hymnal  must  meet  the  wants  of  our  Churches.  It  cannot 
embrace  aU  the  good  hymns,  and  in  any  collection  that  could 
possibly  be  made,  all  of  us  will  miss  some  that  we  love.  But  we 
can  have  a  book  that  will  meet  all  reasonable  demands.  It  is  a 
little  remarkable  how  small  a  number  most  pastors  use.  AVe  have 
heard  of  a  few  ministers  who  tried  to  have  all  the  hymns  sung 


1S4  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

during  a  certain  period.  Young  ministers  usually  Avant  a  large 
number  from  which  to  make  selections,  and  to  every  sermon  they 
want  hymns  specially  adapted.  But  as  we  get  older,  we  narrow  the 
range  until  most  men  of  experience  do  not  use  more  than  forty  or 
fifty.  This  suggests  a  plan.  Let  the  committee  on  the  hymnal 
address  every  pastor,  asking  him  to  give  the  fifty  h3''mns  he  most 
frequently  uses;  and  from  these  answers  make  up  the  collection. 
We  would  get  in  this  way  the  voice  of  the  Church  and  be  able  to 
form  tlie  best  possible  book. 

The  Common  Book  is  not  then  an  ideal  something,  a  dream,  a 
matter  to  be  talked  about,  but  unattainable.  It  can  be  had,  and 
that  in  the  near  future.  No,  it  will  be  realized  as  soon  as  the  love 
of  the  Church  overrides  love  of  party. 

REMARKS. 
Dr.  Jacobs  :  Without  entering  into  a  discussion  of  a  number  of  the 
questions  suggested  by  the  interesting  paper  of  Dr.  Fox,  I  may  say 
that  whatever  may  be  the  difference  concerning  the  details  of  his  argu- 
ment, there  is  substantial  unanimity  as  to  the  end  proposed — the  Com- 
mon Book.  So  far  as  legislation  can  effect  anything,  that  is  already 
accomplished.  Our  General  Bodies  have  already  acted,  and  instructed 
their  representatives  on  the  Joint  Committee,  and  that  Committee  has 
appointed  a  sub-committee  to  report  a  plan  for  the  work.  The  Com- 
mittee, while  fully  aware  that  the  project  will  encounter  peculiar  diffi- 
culties, and  that  years  must  intervene  before  the  wishes  expressed  can 
be  gratified,  can  only  follow  instructions.  Books  that  may  have 
recently  appeared,  or  may  soon  appear,  need  be  no  hindrance  to  the 
ultimate  attainment  of  the  end.  As  Providence  opens  the  way,  we 
must  advance.  The  difficulties,  great  as  they  are,  are  no  greater  than 
those  which  seemed  to  some  of  us  to  obstruct  the  way,  when  the  Com- 
mon Service  was  proposed. 

Dr.  Seiss  cited  Lutheran  authorities  in  favor  of  uniformity  in  the 
services  and  ceremonies  in  the  Church,  and  urging  the  advantages  and 
necessity  of  a  common  Book  to  be  used  as  far  as  possible  by  all. 
These  quotations  were  collected  by  Dr.  Seiss,  and  meant  to  be  read  in 
the  Conference  when  the  subject  of  One  Book  was  under  discussion. 
The  worth  of  these  expressions  entitle  them  to  a  place  in  this  connec- 
tion. 

Klieforth  describes  the  feeling  and  oi)inion  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
from  its  beginning  in  the  words  following : 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  185 

"  While  the  Lutheran  L'hurch  in  tlieory  considered  and  treated  the 
forming  and  changing  of  the  Liturgy  as  a  right  of  the  Church,  she 
held  congregations  and  individual  ministers  bound  by  the  decisions  of 
the  Church  general,  insisted  on  uniformity  of  ceremonies,  forbade  all 
arbitrary  alterations,  and  fully  acknowledged  the  great  practical  evil 
of  inconsiderateness  and  disposition  to  change.  History  teaches  most 
clearly  with  what  steadfastness  she  met  the  insubordination  of  indi- 
viduals, from  Carlstadt  down." 

The  correctness  of  this  statement  appears  from  various  official  and 
authoritative  utterances,  among  which  are  the  following : 

Luther  himself,  in  his  German  Mass,  says  :  "  It  is  true  we  have  free- 
dom ;  but  freedom  should  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  one  another.  For 
love's  sake,  therefore,  we  should  try  to  agree,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
have  a  uniform  manner  and  uniform  ceremonies,  just  as  all  Christians 
have  one  Baptism  and  one  Eucharist  ....  There  have  ahvays 
been  different  rites ;  but  it  would  be  good  if,  throughout  each  realm, 
the  same  order  were  observed." 

So  in  the  Apology,  while  the  Augsburg  Confession  declares  that  it  is 
not  necessary  to  the  Unity  of  the  Church  for  "  human  traditions,  rites, 
or  ceremonies  instituted  by  men,  be  everywhere  alike,"  there  is  this 
further  statement :  "  It  is  pleasing  to  us  that,  for  the  sake  of  unity 
and  good  order,  common  rites  be  universally  observed ;  just  as  we 
willingly  and  gratefully  observe  and  embrace  the  profitable  and 
ancient  ordinances,  especially  as  they  instruct  and  educate  the  people." 

The  Churland  Kirchenordnung  says,  "  It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that 
uniformity  of  ceremonies  should  obtain  throughout  the  whole  land.  It 
would  make  a  favorable  impression  on  the  people,  and  secure  no  small 
advantage  to  the  growth  of  the  Church.  For  if  the  people  see  a 
different  Order  of  Services  and  ceremonies  in  one  place  from  those 
practiced  in  another,  they  are  disturbed  and  perplexed  about  the 
whole  matter  of  religion,  and  the  want  of  conformity  becomes  a 
stumbling-block  and  offence  to  them.  Therefore  it  shall  ever  be  our 
earnest  endeavor  to  secure  decent  and  Christian  order  in  the  churches 
of  this  Principality,  and  we  will  in  no  degree  give  way  to  the  fanati- 
cism of  the  Calvinists,  who,  in  their  blind  perverseness,  will  not  under- 
stand that  God  is  not  a  God  of  confusion  and  disorder." 

The  Pomeranian  Agenda  says,  "  Inasmuch  as  God  is  not  a  God  of 
confusion,  but  of  peace,  and  wills  that  in  congregations  all  things 
should  be  done  decently  and  in  order,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  is  a 
service  peculiarly  acceptable  to  the  Divine  Majesty  when  a  uniform, 
spiritual,  and  edifying  form  of  worship  is  adopted  and  maintained. 


1S6  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

lu  additiou  to  manifold  other  blessings  which  it  brings  with  it,  it 
tends  to  secure  unity  in  the  doctrines  of  God's  Word,  and  to  remove 
many  causes  of  stumbling  to  the  common  people,  who  judge  of  doc- 
trines, sacraments,  and  the  whole  work  of  the  ministry  from  outward 
forms  and  ceremonies.  On  this  account  the  apjiointcd  Order  of  Hymns, 
Lessons,  forms  and  ceremonies  is  to  be  observed  in  our  churches.  And 
where  this  has  not  hitherto  been  the  case,  Pastors  should  comply  with 
this  Order,  and  not  depart  from  it  without  special  and  important 
reasons,  but  cheerfully  conform  to  it  out  of  willing  Christian  love,  in 
order  that  divisions  or  dissensions  among  the  peoj)le  may  be  avoided ; 
for  they  are  not  to  be  allowed  arbitrarily  to  reject  or  alter  the  appointed 
Order  according  to  their  own  pleasure." 

In  full  accord  with  all  this,  Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  near  the 
end  of  his  life,  wrote :  "  It  would  be  a  most  desirable  and  advantageous 
thing  if  all  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  congregations  in  the  North 
American  States  were  united  with  one  another,  and  all  used  the  same 
Order  of  Worship,  the  same  Hynm-book,  and,  in  good  and  evil  days, 
would  show  an  active  symjjathy  and  fraternally  correspond  with  one 
another." 


COMMON  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

BY   REV.  L.  L.  SMITH,  A.M. 

No  subject  is  of  more  importance  tliau  the  type  of  literature 
used  in  the  Sunday-schools  in  connection  Avith  our  Lutlieran  con- 
gregations. Tlic  children  of  to-day  in  the  Sunday-school  will 
make  up  the  active,  intelligent,  and  dominating  membership  of 
to-raori'ow^  in  most  of  the  congregations.  So  it  can  be  positively 
prophesied  that  according  to  the  teaching,  worship  and  spirit  in 
which  the  Sunday-school  is  conducted  to-day,  will  largely  mould 
and  develop  the  Church  life  and  attitude  of  the  next  generation. 
And  it  is  well  for  our  Church  to  realize  the  problem  of  the  great 
power  of  the  modern  Sunday-school  system  in  guiding  and  direct- 
ing the  Church  life  and  spirit,  not  only  of  our  denomination,  but 
of  all  the  churches  of  this  great  nation.  When  we  recall  the  fact 
that  about  1,200,000  laymen  engage  in  teaching  ten  millions  of 
cliildren  every  Sunday,  in  the  cities,  towns  and  country,  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  institution  are  beyond  estimation.  The  teaching 
and  no  teacliiiig  accomplished  by  this  vast  aggregation  tell  us 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  187 

plainly  that  it  will  have  a  mighty  harvest  of  good  and  evil  in  the 
religious  life  of  this  laud.  And  in  the  midst  of  tliis  vast  aggre- 
gation of  all  kinds  of  teachers,  and  every  type  of  literature, 
and  the  multitudinous  sensational  and  unscriptural  devices  and 
mf^thods,  the  Lutheran  Church  is  placed  by  divine  Providence, 
to  bear  the  light  and  blessings  of  her  own  pure  truth  and  wor- 
ship and  practices.  It  is  true  of  the  Church  as  it  is  of  the  indi- 
vidual, she  liveth  not  to  herself;  and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
the  vagaries  and  departures  from  truth  by  scores  of  sects  and 
religious  parties,  it  behooves  her  to  earnestly  lay  hold  of  this  in- 
stitution, to  feed  and  nourish  the  lambs  of  the  flock  in  her  own 
doctrine,  worship  and  church  life.  If  our  Church  has  a  reason, 
and  a  scriptural  reason  above  all,  for  her  own  distinctive  life  and 
existence,  and  of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt,  then  it  follows  to  be 
true  to  God  and  true  to  herself  the  teaching  and  training  of  her 
children  is  the  supreme  question. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question,  what  is  the  Sunday-school?  To 
this  inquiry  the  answer  is  variously  given  both  in  theory  and 
in  practice.  The  answer  is  colored  by  the  peculiar  views  held  by 
the  different  religious  forces.  Largely  the  view  of  the  Church 
dictates  the  view  of  the  Sunday-school.  According  to  Luther, 
the  Family,  the  Church  and  the  State  are  the  three  divine  institu- 
tions. The  family  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole  Christian 
fabric,  and  for  that  reason,  Luther  prescribed  as  the  opening 
direction  to  the  five  parts  of  his  catechism  :  "  in  the  plain  form  in 
Avhich  the  head  of  the  family  should  teach  it  to  his  household." 
This  places  the  responsibility  for  the  children  where  the  Lord 
places  it,  primarily,  with  the  parents.  No  agency  of  the  Church 
can  possibly  set  at  nought  that  obligation.  But,  though  that  be 
true,  has  not  the  Church  a  binding  obligation  to  teach,  to  instruct 
her  children  ?  That  a  leading  duty  of  the  Church  was  to  teach 
all  nations  was  made  })lain  in  the  great  commission  of  our  Lord 
to  His  disciples.  That  little  children  are  included  in  the  scope 
of  that  commission  was  evident  from  the  Saviour's  own  com- 
mands, "Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  Me  and  forbid  them 
not,"  as  well  as  from  His  impressive  charge  to  Peter:  "Feed 
my  lambs."     This  duty  has  been  solemnly  performed   by  the 


183  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Cliurcli  in  every  age  from  Abraham  down  to  the  present,  when- 
ever slie  has  been  faithful  to  her  great  Head.  The  patriarchs 
like  Abraham,  Job,  Jacob,  Moses  and  others  taught  the  chlhli-en, 
and  it  is  well  to  remember  how  Ezra  gathered  the  people  with  the 
children  together,  and  required  the  priests  to  explain  the  mean- 
ing of  the  law  of  God.  Afterwards  the  schools  attached  to  the 
synagogues  in  the  New  Testament  period,  followed  by  the  cate- 
chetical schools  of  the  early  Christian  Church,  then  Luther  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  as  he  so  plainly  states  in  the  preface 
to  the  catechism,  give  an  unbroken  historical  chain  of  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  always  had,  more  or  less,  a  con- 
scious realization  of  this  duty  and  privilege.  Therefore  the 
modern  Sunday-school  is  simply  the  Church  performing  one  of 
its  divinely  given  functions,  teaching.  And  this,  primarily,  to 
the  infant  or  child  membership  of  each  congregation,  but  no  less 
a  blessing  to  all  who  may  attend  upon  its  services.  The  Sun- 
day-school, therefore,  is  not  a  new  institution.  It  is  not  a  separate 
agency,  distinct  from  the  Church,  with  the  officers,  and  teachers, 
and  scholars  only  to  follow  their  whims  and  notions, — a  little 
Church,  sadly  in  some  cases  an  opposition, — but  the  Church  per- 
forming her  great  and  holy  function  of  teaching.  Thus  the 
Sunday-school  is  the  Church  organized  for  this  specific  work  of 
instruction  after  the  catechetical  method,  the  pastor  e.r  officio  its 
superintendent,  the  congregation's  otiicers  its  governing  board,  and 
the  congregation  fulfilling  its  obligation  of  instruction  and  training. 
"Witli  tlie  Church  thus  ready  to  teach  and  to  train,  to  whom 
shall  instruction  and  traiuiiig  be  given  ?  First  and  chiefest, 
children,  baptized  children,  children  in  the  Church.  The  Scrip- 
tures teach  that  all  are  conceived  and  born  in  sin  ;  tliat  children 
inherit  from  their  parents,  and  tliey  from  Adam,  a  sinful  nature; 
that  our  Lord  took  upon  Himself  our  nature,  that  He  became  the 
second  head  and  parent  of  our  race,  that  we  might  receive  a  new 
nature ;  that  children  only  become  j)artakers  of  this  new  nature 
by  being  grafted  into  Him  ;  that  chiklren  are  thus  grafted  into 
Him  and  become  members  of  Christ,  the  second  Adam,  children 
of  God  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  in  holy  baptism. 
As  there  is  a  natural  life,  so  is  there  as  well  a  Christian  life  ;  as 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  189 

there  is  a  natural  birth,  so  is  there  a  spiritual  new  l^irth.  There- 
fore, holy  baptism  begins  Christian  training.  Without  it,  what- 
ever other  training  may  be  given,  Christian  training  is  an  im- 
possibility. Christian  training  differs  from  all  other  training  in 
this  one  respect,  that  it  believed  in  an  implanted  supernatural 
life,  which  can  be  and  must  be  developed.  This  fundamental 
truth  impels  the  Church  to  train  and  teach  her  children  as  mem- 
bers of  Christ  and  children  of  God.  Recognizing  that  they  are 
the  lambs  of  the  Good  Shepherd  in  the  true  fold  of  His  Holy 
Church,  the  divine  seal  and  pledge  of  their  baptism  is  to  be 
impressed  upon  them.  As  babes  in  the  Kingdom  they  are  to  be 
taught  in  the  word  the  great  and  saving  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, 
and  trained  in  the  worship  and  duties  of  confirmed  members  of 
the  congregation.  Just  as  the  young  are  taught  and  equipped 
in  school,  in  college  and  in  university,  for  the  duties  of  manhood 
and  womanhood  in  future  life,  so  these  children  of  the  Kingdom 
are  to  be  indoctrinated  in  the  saving  duties  of  the  Gospel,  famil- 
iarized with  the  order  of  worship  harmonizing  Avith  these  teach- 
ings, and  inspired  by  the  commands  of  the  Saviour,  and  the 
knowledge  and  the  needs  of  His  earthly  kingdom,  to  engage  in 
the  practical  work  of  the  Church.  And  in  no  less  manner,  to  the 
unbaptized  and  wandering,  this  teaching  service  of  the  Church 
should  come,  telling  pointedly  and  "  face  to  face  "  the  great  love 
in  God  to  sinful  men.  In  this  teaching  service,  the  opportunity 
— the  privilege — is  blessed,  to  bring  Christ  to  men  through  the 
divine  Word — His  means  of  grace  and  salvation.  The  very 
directness  of  this  method  makes  it  a  mighty  instrumentality  to 
save  men. 

This  conception  of  the  Lutheran  Sunday-school,  this  definition 
of  its  sphere,  this  brief  statement  of  its  great  and  all  important 
work  leads  to  the  thought  of  the  instrument  by  which  the  Church 
as  teacher  shall  accomplish  the  true  end  of  the  kingdom.  This 
topic  denominates  it  literature,  the  literature  of  song  in  praise  and 
worship,  the  literature  of  prayer  and  supplication,  the  literature 
bearing  the  divine  truth  of  God's  holy  word  and  the  literature  of 
presenting  the  facts  and  knowledge  of  the  practical  things  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.     The  congregation  in  this  teaching  service  of 


190  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  Sunday-school  differs  only  from  the  congregation  in  the 
preaeliing  service  by  the  fact  tiuit  it  uses  not  the  sacramental 
word ;  further,  that  it  follows  the  catechetical  ratlier  than  the 
preaching  method  ;  and  that  the  teachers,  clerical  and  lay,  are 
many,  instead  of  one,  and  that  one  of  the  clergy.  Therefore,  at 
this  service,  three  facts  are  emphasized :  Worship,  doctrine  and 
Christian  duties. 

Is  not  this  the  same  service  as  the  Church  in  her  fullness  ren- 
ders, save  in  the  exceptions  just  noted?  If  the  Sunday-school  is 
the  congregation  training  and  teaching  the  young  of  the  king- 
dom, how  important,  then,  that  this  service,  in  its  various  ele- 
ments, be  just  a  miniature  of  the  great  congregation.  Should  not 
the  songs  of  the  Sunday-school  follow  the  spirit  and  teaching  of 
the  hymns  of  the  great  sanctuary?  Alas!  how  often  the  Sunday- 
school  in  its  song  and  musical  training  unfits  the  children  for  the 
church  service.  The  hymns  written  by  our  great  hymuologists 
and  the  churchly  and  majestic  music  of  their  setting,  comes  to 
them  with  no  impressiveness.  Children  in  their  worship  are 
trained,  the  worship  of  the  Sunday-school  accomplishes  this  very 
end.  Fed  upon  nothing  but  the  religious  ditties  of  the  average 
Sunday-school  hymnal,  with  their  many  departures  from  divine 
truth  in  their  words  and  sentiments,  and  much  of  their  music  not 
far  removed  from  the  plantation  melody  or  the  popular  air  of  the 
passing  hour,  it  is  not  suri)rising  that  the  divine  wcjrds  and  the 
reverent  and  churchly  music  of  the  service  is  unappreciated. 
Thus,  the  young  should  be  taught  the  surpassing  beauty  of  the 
Kyric,  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  the  Nunc  Dimittis  and  the  chant- 
ing of  the  Psalms,  and,  having  these  in  early  life  in  the  days  of 
their  training,  they  will  come  to  the  church  service  after  their 
confirmation  with  a  full  appreciation  of  the  surpassing  loveliness 
of  the  Church's  worship.  It  will  satisfy  their  spiritual  hunger  and 
edify  them  in  their  most  holy  faith.  A  Sunday-school — the 
Church — thus  training  her  spiritual  children,  will  find  them 
always  reverent  and  devout  worshipers  in  the  Church  of  their 
childhood.  Mutations  of  time  and  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune 
may  cast  their  lots  where  there  is  no  Lutheran  Church,  but  their 
faithful  training  will  abide  with  them.  Yea,  like  the  devout  Jews 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  191 

of  old,  they  will  weep  when  they  remember  the  songs  of  Ziou. 
Aud  then,  in  following  our  own  historic  order  of  worship,  how 
it  impresses  the  young,  that,  though  the  exposition  of  the  Word 
is  of  the  highest  importance,  yet  the  adoration  and  worship  of 
the  Saviour  of  children  must  have  its  due  position  in  the  chil- 
dren's service.  The  coming  of  children  before  God  in  the  sanc- 
tuary to  be  taught  by  Him  must  be  accompanied  by  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  His  goodness  to  them  in  the  gift  of  His  Son  for 
their  redemption.  The  literature  used  in  the  Sunday-school 
should  have  the  end  in  view  of  training  the  children  according 
to  Scriptural  principles  lunv  to  worship  their  Heavenly  Father  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  Thus  the  true  Lutheran  Sunday-school  with 
its  worship  following  the  historic  order  will  prepare  and  train  the 
young  to  full  appreciation  of  the  blessedness  of  the  matchless 
service  of  the  great  congregation.  Yea,  not  waiting  till  they 
become  confirmed  members,  but  even  when  children  in  their  par- 
ents' pews,  they  will  swell  the  songs  and  the  responses  of  the  con- 
gregation in  chant,  in  hymn,  in  anthem,  in  psalm  and  prayers. 
The  congregations  in  which  in  the  future  they  shall  abide  will 
have  the  great  benediction  of  devout,  reverent  and  earnest  wor- 
shipers. 

And,  with  still  greater  emphasis,  the  literature  in  the  Sunday- 
school  of  a  Lutheran  congregation  bearing  the  truth  of  God's  holy 
word  to  the  lambs  of  the  flock  will  always  be  in  harmony  with  the 
teaching  of  the  pulpit  of  the  congregation.  It  is  to  be  taken  for 
granted  that  the  pulpit  is  faithful  to  ordination  vows,  faithful  to  the 
conception  of  divine  truth  as  found  in  the  great  confessions.  The 
literature  used  in  our  Sunday-schools  should  be  for  training  and 
instruction,  so  that  the  children  of  the  Church  when  they  come 
to  be  men  and  women  of  the  Church  will  have  an  intelligent  con- 
ception (if  her  teaching.  Just  here,  it  is  all  important  in  every 
Lutheran  Sunday-school  to  thoroughly  train  and  instruct  in  the 
"Word,  above  all  things.  The  Holy  Scriptures  should  be  given 
first  place,  and  in  a  simple  way  exhibited  to  the  young  that  they 
may  be  deejily  impressed  with  the  absolute  scripturalness  of  the 
faith  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  lamentable  fact,  how  cloudy  is  the 
knowledge  of  God's  Word  among  so  many  of  the  young.     With 


192  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

SO  many  aids  and  helps,  yet  how  small  a  portion  of  divine  truth 
is  clearly  known,  so  that  as  a  result  the  young  have  convictions, 
the  abiding  possession  of  the  verities  of  the  ever  blessed  truth  as 
it  is  in  Christ.  When  it  is  considered  how  in  this  day  innumer- 
able views  are  held  of  the  teaching  of  the  Word,  and  then  how 
these  views  are  pressed  by  their  various  advocates,  in  private,  on 
the  platform,  in  tracts  and  leaflets  gratuitously  distributed,  and 
in  the  current  magazines  and  newspapers,  views  utterly  at  vari- 
ance with  the  historic  faith,  if  the  young  are  to  be  held  to  the 
faith  of  the  fathers,  the  Church  must,  by  teaching,  make  a  part 
of  their  intellectual  being  the  divine  plan  of  redemption.  And 
the  child  thus  taught  is  safely  anchored  by  the  word  of  God ! 
Liberalism,  legalistic  narrowness,  rationalism  and  l)latant  agnos- 
ticism and  credulous  and  irreverent  skepticism  will  fail  to  disturb 
them,  much  less  to  enlist  them  as  disciples. 

This  instruction  in  the  Word  in  the  Sunday-schools  must  have 
as  its  rule  and  guidance  the  catechism.  Tiiere  must  be  harmony 
between  the  two,  for  the  Lutheran  Sunday-school  without  the  cat- 
echism is  without  compass  and  cannot  reach  its  true  destination. 
The  whole  divine  plan  is  joined  together  in  a  system  in  that 
little  book.  The  doctrine  of  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and 
God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  adorable  Trinity,  of  sin  and  of  grace, 
of  conversion,  of  regeneration,  of  faith,  of  good  works,  of  the 
Church,  of  everlasting  life  and  death,  of  baptism  and  the  holy 
supper,  are  presented  as  the  Word  teaches.  If  that  little  book  is 
indoctrinated  thoroughly  into  the  hearts  of  the  young,  a  strong 
and  rugged  faith  and  life  and  practice  will  be  the  result.  The 
dangerous,  angular,  professing  religionism  of  the  times,  so  {u-eva- 
lent  in  all  sections,  will  have  no  attraction  to  them.  To  know  the 
simple  truth  of  God  gives  rest  to  the  soul.  With  the  Scriptures 
and  the  catechism,  should  be,  in  teaching  and  instruction,  the 
books  to  be  distributed,  week  after  week,  to  be  read  by  the  pupils. 
Alas!  how  careless  and  thoughtless  the  Church  is  in  giving  out  in 
her  name  that  which  teaches  the  negation  for  which  the  Church 
is  set  to  declare  and  defend.  No  book  of  un-Lutheran  spirit 
should  have  the  approval  of  the  Church  as  the  teacher  of  her 
Sunday-school  work,  that  denies  the  faith  or  impugns  or  casts 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  193 

doubt  ou  it,  either  by  direct  denial  or  the  specious  pleading  for 
another  teaching.  The  Church  in  her  Sunday-school  work  should 
remember  her  obligation  to  the  Lord  and  His  trutli,  and  in  the 
teaching  of  the  word  and  of  the  catechism  and  of  the  library 
should  have  but  one  teaching,  the  truth  in  Christ  our  Lord,  as  it 
is  our  heritage. 

"With  literature  for  pure  worship  and  pure  teaching  the  office 
of  the  Sunday-school  does  not  end.  In  the  training  of  the  bap- 
tized children,  the  work  of  the  Sunday-school  must  be  complete. 
These  young  Christians  must  be  fully  equipped,  not  one-sided 
disciples,  but  rounded  and  symmetrical,  prepared  for  future  ser- 
vice. Therefore  literature  must  come  into  this  work,  instructing 
in  the  great  practical  duties  of  the  kingdom.  Literature  telling 
of  missions,  home  and  foreign,  and  the  duties  of  the  young  to 
them.  Literature  telling  of  the  orphan,  the  aged,  the  sick,  and 
sorrowful,  and  their  duty  to  them.  Literature  telling  of  the  cause 
of  education  and  its  relation  to  the  future  influence  of  the  king- 
dom, and  literature  presenting  the  claims,  the  reasons  and  the 
necessity  for  the  practical  works  given  to  the  Church  to  do  by  the 
Lord.  And  this  literature  must  be  soundly  scriptural,  following 
the  directions  of  Him  "  who  Avent  about  doing  good."  It  must 
avoid  giving  the  cheap,  worldly  reasons  and  methods,  avoid  the 
penny-in-the-slot  devices  of  modern  churches,  but  have  as  its 
basis  "  a  true  fear,  love  and  trust  in  God  above  all  things,"  doing 
his  will  out  of  hearts  full  of  faith  and  love. 

The  Sunday-school  thus  understood,  as  simply  a  teaching  func- 
tion of  the  Church,  and  the  literature  in  worship,  doctrine  and 
practice  used,  to  be  after  the  same  type  and  rule  as  the  literature 
of  the  congregation  proper,  the  question  arises  whether  or  not  it 
would  glorify  God  and  advance  His  Church  by  having  it  common. 
Would  it  be  a  blessing  to  have  every  Lutheran  Sunday-school 
using  such  a  type  of  literature  ?  The  careful  observer  will  notice 
the  striking  problems  of  the  Church  in  this  land.  Here,  as  no- 
where else,  growing  out  of  the  brief  history,  the  wonderful  mate- 
rial develo^jment,  the  provision  by  the  State  for  education  from 
the  primary  school  to  the  university,  the  cheapening  of  books, 
periodicals  and  papers,  and  the  mixed  character  of  our  popvda- 
13 


194  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

tion,  together  ^vith  separation  of  Church  and  State  with  all  it 
signifies,  the  Church  must  stand  together.  Subtle,  yet  all  power- 
ful, are  these  influences  ofttinics  against  the  truth  and  the  teaching 
of  the  gospel.  And,  because  of  the  great  freedom  of  our  institu- 
tions, the  departure  from  historic  teaching  is  ever  arisiug.  Here 
sects  and  isms  spring  up  almost  daily,  with  crowds  to  follow  the 
leaders,  until  on  every  hand  our  children  are  beset  by  false  and 
pernicious  teaching.  So  much  of  it  passes  current  with  the  name 
of  the  Church  stamped  upon  it,  calculated  to  mislead  and  deceive 
the  young.  How  can  they  be  retained  in  the  Church  but  by 
thorough  training  and  instruction  ?  The  necessity  for  every  child 
of  the  Church  to  have  a  reason  for  its  faith  is  apparent.  They 
should  be  able  to  discern  the  departures  from  the  truth,  not  alone 
in  the  influential  denominations  surrounding  them,  but  even  in 
the  pulpit  of  their  own  Zion.  Not  only  should  this  common 
training  and  instruction  in  the  Sunday-school  be  for  defence 
against  the  false  and  the  partial  truth  from  without,  but  primarily 
for  the  highest  life  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  the  future.  The 
Church,  just  as  an  individual,  has  its  highest  service  in  a  positive 
rather  than  in  a  negative  life.  To  combat  error  is  of  great 
importance  and  often  a  first  duty,  but  richer  is  the  life  of  the 
Church  Avhen  she  positively  keeps  the  commands  of  her  great 
Head,  not  alone  in  worship  and  doctrine,  but  also  in  her  service 
for  the  world. 

The  Lutheran  Church  of  the  present  is  the  product  of  the 
church  life  and  spirit  of  the  past  generation  of  our  fathers.  To 
some  extent  the  religious  spirit  of  those  about  her  has  had  a  deep 
influence. 

Looking  at  the  conditions  existing  in  our  beloved  Zion  in  the 
United  States,  though  her  growth  and  strides  have  been  marvel- 
ous, and  glad  are  her  children  for  what  she  has  accomplished,  yet 
there  must  be  keen  regret  at  her  losses,  her  lack  of  influence,  and 
the  meagerness  of  her  accomplishments. 

Can  any  other  result  be  expected  when  the  Lutheran  hosts  are 
broken  into  so  many  camjis?  And  not  only  the  many  divisions 
among  her  followers,  but  the  sad  fact  that  these  divisions  signify 
an  emphasis  of  one  part  of  her  doctrine  and  life,  as  over  against 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  195 

the  full  consciousness  and  life  of  true  Lutlieranism.  One  synod 
or  congregation  stands  for  emphasis  on  worsliip,  while  auotlierfor 
confessional  doctrine,  and  still  another  for  service  and  practical 
duties.  Among  these  divisions  is  seen  imperfect,  angular  Lutlier- 
anism at  its  fullest.  Is  it  not  all  the  result  of  the  training  and 
instruction  and  influences  of  the  past  generation?  Here  is  a 
synod  of  purest  doctrine,  venerating  the  confessions,  yet  it  shows 
its  appreciation  of  pure  teaching  by  an  offering  of  a  mere  pittance 
to  the  great  causes  of  mis.^ious,  orphans,  education,  etc.,  while  on 
the  other  hand  a  synod  of  great  practical  godliness,  its  gifts  ten 
or  twenty  fold  greater,  places  little  emphasis  on  doctrinal  truth. 
What  is  the  explanation?  Is  it  not  training?  Pure  doctrine 
does  not  militate  against  practical  benevolence.  It  only  shows 
that  those  people  have  been  trained  in  but  one  sphere  of  the  king- 
dom, they  have  but  one  vision  and  are  unable  to  see  the  depart- 
ments of  the  Church's  life.  Training  in  doctrine  has  been 
emphasized  to  the  neglect  of  training  in  applied  Christianity, 
while  on  the  other  hand  training  in  applied  Christianity  is  done 
at  the  exi:)ense  of  doctrinal  truth.  The  trouble  is  the  one  idea 
among  the  divided  sections  of  the  Church,  a  ftxilure  to  appreciate 
Lutheranism  in  its  fullness  and  perfection.  The  hope  of  the 
future  for  the  Church  lies  in  the  abolition  of  the  one-idea  Luther- 
anism, wherever  it  is  found,  and  bringing  the  Church  to  the  full 
appreciation  of  true,  devout  and  reverent  Lutheranism  in  wor- 
ship, doctrine  and  applied  Christianity.  Training  and  instruction 
in  this  trinity  of  functions  is  our  great  need.  Here  presses  home 
to  us  the  utmost  importance  of  common  Sunday-school  literature. 
Great  is  the  power  of  family  training,  great  the  influence  of  the 
pastor's  catechetical  class;  but  with  a  full  sense  of  these  holy 
agencies,  the  Church  training  her  children  through  the  Sundaj'- 
school  is  a  mighty  power  preparing  for  the  future. 

Common  Ruuday-school  literature,  emphasizing  in  due  propor- 
tion worship,  doctrine,  and  practical  Christian  work,  would,  if 
faithfully  used,  bring  about  a  united  Church,  faithful  in  doctrine, 
worship  and  works.  The  outward  unity  of  the  Church  would 
result  from  the  consciousness  of  symmetrical.  Christian  life.  This 
is  the  hope  for  the  future,  it  can  not  be  now.     Those  advanced  in 


19G  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

years  in  our  congregiitions  ^Yill  not  renounce  or  give  up  their 
training.  The  Common  Service,  the  Common  Book,  the  Common 
Ministerial  Acts,  the  Common  Translation  of  the  Smaller  Cate- 
chism, all  have  their  influence  toward  this  great  end. 

But,  knowing  that  the  fathers  must  pass  away  and  that  the 
cliildren  will  take  their  places,  no  factor  can  he  more  powerful  for 
the  future  than  common  Sunday-school  literature.  Fatal  is  the 
error  of  the  Church  if  she  realizes  not  the  divine  obligation  to 
train  her  children ;  unfortunate  for  the  Church,  if  they  are  not 
taught  and  trained  in  the  same  doctrine,  worship  and  practice. 
They  are  the  seed  of  the  future  Church.  Aa  the  children  are 
trained  and  instructed,  so  the  Church  will  be  within  a  score  or 
more  of  years.  If  the  Church  in  the  various  sections  is  to  be  close 
together  in  doctrine,  worship  and  holy  living,  keeping  her  faith 
and  blessing  this  great  nation,  then  common  Sufiday -school  liter- 
ature is  a  necessity. 

LUTHERANISM  AND  SPIRITUALITY. 

BY   EZRA   K.  BELL,  D.D. 

Spirituality  is  the  realization  of  divine  truth  in  the  whole 
being  of  man.  The  truth  of  God  is  the  essence  of  the  spiritual 
as  the  great  Teacher  said,  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  The  realization  of  divine 
truth  which  produces  the  spiritual,  must  be  a  realization  by  both 
the  mind  and  the  heart.  The  apprehension  of  divine  truth  intel- 
lectually and  the  statement  of  it  systematically  give  us  a  confes- 
sion of  faith.  The  realization  of  it  in  the  heart,  gives  us  the 
active  Christian  life  in  conformity  with  the  doctrine  confessed. 

The  mere  intellectual  apprehension  of  divine  truth  produces  a 
dead  orthodoxy,  and  a  spirituality  without  a  confessional  basis 
produces  a  vapid  emotionalism  subject  to  every  wind  of  doctrine. 
Lutheranism,  while  laying  great  stress  upon  pure  doctrine,  lays 
equal  stress  upon  purity  of  the  heart.  AVhile  making  much  of 
the  truth  she  confesses  she  also  places  great  emphasis  upcni  purity 
of  life.  Lutheranism  rightly  apprehended  is  synonymous  with 
spirituality.      Lutheranism  receives   the  divine  word   and   has 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  197 

tlie  Holy  Si)irit  si)cakiug  that  word  to  the  heart.  To  be  a  Luth- 
eran in  fact  is  to  be  spiritual,  for  Lutheranisai  knows  nothing 
but  the  divine  word,  and  that  word  in  the  heart  and  life 
ilhimincd  by  the  Holy  Gh.ist.  When  the  x^pot-tle  spoke  of  some 
as,  "  Ye  that  are  spiritual,"  he  said  no  more  than  ought  to  be 
said  of  the  Lutheran,  who  knows  his  Church  and  illustrates  her 
doctrine  in  his  life. 

Muhlenberg  and  his  co-laborers,  who  planted  and  founded  our 
Church  in  this  new  world,  were  what  their  names  imported. 
They  were  Lutherans.  They  held  the  Lutheran  faith  as  set 
forth  in  the  confessions  of  the  Church.  They  were  disciples  of  the 
famous  pietists,  Arndt,  Spener  and  Francke,  whose  devout  adher- 
ence to  the  Lutheran  faith  "  was  equalled  only  by  the  purity  of 
their  lives  and  the  living  power  of  their  piety."  Arndt  had  said 
of  the  symbols  of  our  Church,  "I  have  always  voluntarily  and 
considerately  acknowledged  the  unaltered  i\.ugsburg  Confession, 
and  have  no  intention  or  thought  ever  to  receive  or  disseminate 
any  other  doctrine."  Spener  said  :  "The  symbols  of  our  Church 
have  quod  autoritatem,  a  great,  glorious,  mighty  and  express 
authority.  God  has  graciously  guarded  the  authors  of  these 
symbols,  that  they  mistook  not  in  doctrine,  but  set  it  forth,  and 
bore  witness  to  that  teaching  which  conforms  to  the  divine 
word."  Francke  professed  the  most  hearty  acceptance  of  the 
symbols  of  our  Church,  and  his  solemn  avowal  was  "  I  desire  no 
other  religion." 

Muhlenberg  and  his  associates  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
these  illustrious  men  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Church  in 
this  country  deep  aud  strong  in  that  true  spu'ituality,  which  has 
its  source  in  the  pure  word  of  God  as  Illuminated  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  They  were  commissioned  by  the  most  pious  .men  of 
Europe  to  come  to  America  and  minister  to  the  scattered  flocks 
of  the  Lutheran  fold. 

Our  people  who  preceded  them  were  characterized  by  a  spirit- 
uality that  was  not  surpassed,  if  equaled,  by  any  of  the  early  set- 
tlers in  this  country.  The  first— the  Swedish  colonists  "  were  of 
the  same  blood  and  faith  as  the  noble  heroes  who  a  few  years 
before  had  followed  their  great  Prince  in  the  defence  of  Christian 


198  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GEXErwVL  CONFERENCE. 

liberty  through  the  battlefields  of  Europe,  aud  who  like  him  at 
last  lay  down  in  victorious  peace  upon  the  plains  of  Lutzen. 
They  brought  with  them  the  Bible  with  its  sacraments,  the 
Church  with  its  ministry,  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  Luther's 
Catechism."  Of  the  next  colonists  it  is  said  Wesley  learned  his 
first  lessons  in  spiritual  religion.  It  was  his  fortune  to  cross  the 
sea  with  them,  aud  after  observing  their  piety,  was  himself  con- 
vinced of  the  deep  spirituality  of  their  faith,  and  so  influenced  by 
it  that  he  afterwards  wrote  in  his  private  journal :  "  I  went  to 
America  to  teach  the  Georgia  Indians  the  nature  of  Christianity ; 
but  I  have  learned  myself  in  the  meantime  (what  of  all  I  least 
expected)  that  I  Avho  went  to  America  to  convert  others,  was 
never  myself  converted."  Their  own  historian  says  :  "  In  these 
strangers  (Lutheran  Colonists)  the  English  Methodists  beheld 
Christianity  in  a  light  more  gentle,  attractive  and  consoling  than 
that  in  w'hich  they  had  ever  before  seen  it." 

There  is  nothing  clearer  in  the  history  of  our  Church  than  that 
those  bearing  our  name,  who  first  planted  our  Church  in  xlmerica, 
were  Lutherans  to  the  manor  born,  holding  tenaciously  to  the 
symbols  of  our  Church  and  exhibiting  a  piety  which  presents  one 
of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  early  history  of  our  country.  Our 
fathers  here  in  America  professed  a  profoundly  sjiiritual  religion, 
and  none  of  the  other  settlers  exhibited  a  sweeter  temper,  a 
holier  faith,  or  an  humbler  or  more  devoted  service  to  tiie  cross 
than  they.  They  were  pious  souls,  truly  spiritual  and  thor- 
oughly Lutheran, 

But  in  America,  Lutheranism  found  not  only  a  new  soil,  but 
new  environments.  Other  faiths  had  preceded  and  their  votaries 
had  come  in  greater  numbers.  While  immigrations  from  Luth- 
eran lands  were  less  numerous,  they  were  further  hindered  by  the 
prejudices  and  persecutions  of  both  Cavalier  and  Puritan. 
i\Iorcover,  as  time  wore  on,  two  gieat  religious  bodies  began 
more  and  mure  to  influence  Protestantism  in  America.  These 
branches  of  the  Reformed  Church,  th(i  Calvinists  and  the  Armi- 
nians,  emphasized  strongly  their  distinctive  tenets  and  exercised 
a  powerful  influence  in  shaping  the  forms  of  religious  tliought 
and  experience.     Calvinism,  starting  in  its  theological   sj'stem 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  199 

with  the  sovereignty  of  God,  has  emphasized  the  decrees  of  God, 
His  predestination  of  elect  and  non-elect,  producing  that  puritan 
type  of  religious  life  wliich  predominated  so  largely  in  England 
and  America  a  hundred  years  ago.  Hyper-Calvinism  produced 
a  stern  type  of  Christian  life,  a  life  conditioned  more  by  fear 
than  love,  too  ready  to  draw  the  sword  against  its  foe,  not  ready 
enough  to  extend  a  fraternal  hand  to  those  who  might  have 
been  its  friends.  The  sj^irituality,  hence,  of  Calvinism,  produced 
a  type  of  religious  experience  which  lacked  the  deeper  and  finer 
touches  of  that  fervid  faith,  which  has  its  source  and  existence  in 
the  love  of  God  as  manifested  in  the  gift  of  His  Son. 

Arminianism,  on  the  other  hand,  ignored  the  decrees  of  God, 
and  sought  to  establish  a  system  of  religious  doctrine  which 
should  magnify  the  free  agency  of  man.  Making  much  of  the 
reaction  against  hyper-Calvinism,  and  under  a  masterful  and 
enthusiastic  leadership,  Arminianism  swept  over  England  and 
America.  With  a  polity  that  solidified  its  gatliering  forces,  and 
with  a  form  of  government  evidencing  greater  strength  than  any 
known  in  Protestantism,  it  succeeded  in  making  one  of  the  most 
aggressive  and  powerful  organizations  the  Christian  Church  has 
ever  had.  In  this  country  Calvinism  and  Arminianism  contested 
for  supremacy.  Fifty  years  ago  votaries  of  the  Arminian  system 
believed  with  all  the  heart  that  Calvinism  was  synonymous  with 
fatalism,  and  they  opposed  it  as  vigorously  as  they  could  have 
opposed  the  tenets  of  Rome.  Calvinists,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
just  as  sincere  in  the  conviction  that  Arminianism  was  but  an- 
other form  of  Universalism,  and  they  opposed  its  progress  with 
corresponding  vigor.  In  the  midst  of  this  conflict  the  Lutheran 
Church  prosecuted  her  work  in  this  country.  She  came  with  her 
pure  faith  and  her  devotional  treasures,  expressed  in  a  tongue 
that  was  foreign  and  unwelcome.  As  new  generations  came  and 
the  old  ones  passed  away,  they  thought,  and  spoke,  and  read  in  the 
language  which  had  no  literature  of  their  own  faith.  The  Puri- 
tan published  the  books,  and  the  Arminian  furnished  a  large 
part  of  the  preaching,  Germany  could  not  provide  English 
preachers,  and  the  American  Lutheran  Church  had  neither 
schools  nor  colleges  of  efficiency  or  renown.     The  Puritan  pro- 


200  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

test  a^^'ainst  Lutheran  forms  of  worship  tended  to  modify  the 
Lutheran  service,  and  the  mourner's  bench  contested  for  the 
phace  of  the  catechetical  class  and  Lutheran  preparation  for  con- 
firmation.    To  render  the  development  of  true  spirituality  still 
more  complex  in   the  Lutheran  Church,  rationalism   appeared 
very  early  in  many  Lutheran  puli)ils.      The  influence  of  the 
older  rationalism   crossed   the   Atlantic,  and  with   the  limited 
synodical  oversight  which  many  congregations  had,  there  were 
ministers  in  German  pulpits  who  declined  the  use  of  Luther's 
catechism,  and  rejected  the  Augustana,  because  of  their  intensely 
evangelical  statements  of  Christian  doctrine.     Under  such  con- 
ditions, and  with  such  environment,  it  is  little  wonder  that,  as 
English  churches  were  organized,  they  should  be  influenced  in 
doctrine  and  worship  by  the  overpowering  religious  forces  around 
them.     It  is  little  wonder  that,  during  the  period  of  transition, 
when  the  English  tongue  was  displacing  the  German,  that  "new 
measures  "  should   have  been  introduced,  and  a  recension  of  the 
Augustana  attempted.    It  is  not  surprising  that  there  were  leaders 
who,  without  doubt,  sincerely  thought  that  a  Lutheran  ism  modi- 
fied by  Puritanism  and  Arminianism,  would  best  conserve  the 
interests  of  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord.     That  experiment  could 
not  have  been  more  honestly  tried  or  more  ably  and  earnestly 
advocated.     But  it  is  a  matter  of  grateful  import  that  many  of 
these  fathers  lived  long  enough  to  be  convinced  that  the  spiritual 
life  of  Lutherauism  could  be  developed  best  by  declining  Puritan 
innovations  and  Arminian  extravagances,  and  by  accepting  with- 
out reservation  the  Lutheran  system  of  faith  and  worship.     It 
would  seem  in  the  providence  of  God  that  the  attempt  at  recen- 
sion should  be  an  object  lesson  for  all  time,  and  thus  prepare  the 
way  for  a  compact,  conservatively  aggressive  Church  founded 
u])on  the  Word  of  God  as  set  forth  in  our  matchless  Augustana. 
The  Lutheran  Church,  to  develop  the  best  spirituality,  must 
always  be  herself     She  need  not  go  to  others  for  either  doctrine 
or  forms  of  worship.     Her  own  system  of  fiiith  and  devotion  is 
at  once  symmetrical  and  profoundly  spiritual.     As  our  reverend 
Father  who  preached  the  Word  at  the  opening  of  this  Confer- 
ence said  more  than  thirty  years  ago  :  "  Taking  the  deepest  and 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  201 

broadest  foundation  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  working  ever 
from  its  inner  essence  and  spirit,  there  is  nothing  good  or  praise- 
worthy in  faith  or  practice  which  does  not  harmonize  with  her, 
or  which  may  not  be  realized  as  her  own  proper  fruit.  She  held 
and  taught  a  sovereign  salvation,  by  grace  only,  before  Calvin  was 
freed  from  the  shackles  of  papal  superstition.  She  confessed  and 
believed  that  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man,  before  Arminius 
was  born.  She  approved  and  practiced  the  holding  of  meetings 
for  prayer  and  mutual  edification,  before  there  was  a  Wesley  or 
any  followers  of  his  method.  She  had  her  liturgies  and  forms  of 
devotion — the  models  and  sources  of  the  ])est  that  have  followed 
— when  England  was  yet  in  the  arms  of  the  papacy,  and  the 
English  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  not  been  thought  of 

She  had  her  bishops  before  there  were  any  Episcopalians  so 
called,  though  ever  denying  that  diocesan  Episcopacy  so  called  is 
at  all  necessary  to  the  integrity  of  the  Church.  In  government 
she  prescribes  for  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Word,  but  leaves  all 
questions  of  outward  forms  to  be  relegated  as  the  circumstances 
may  render  most  convenient  or  desirable.  And  in  all  things  she 
is  as  many  sided  as  the  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit  or  the  glorious 
character  of  her  Lord. 

The  Lutheran  system  is  deeply  spiritual  throughout.  In  its 
conception  of  the  Word  of  God  this  is  pre-eminent.  It  makes 
everything  rest  upon  Holy  Scripture.  The  ultimate  f  )undation 
of  our  faith  rests  here.  Individual  errors  or  apparent  contradic- 
tion cannot  unsettle  that  upon  which  Lutheranism  rests.  As 
Luthardt  says,  "  Our  faith  is  not  mere  faith  in  the  letter  of  the 
Scripture,  but,  above  and  beyond  this,  in  the  matter  of  which 
Scripture  informs  us.  And  this  matter,  if  we  would  name  it  by 
a  word,  is  Jesus  Christ.  We  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  not  merely 
on  account  of  Scripture,  for  rather  do  we  believe  in  Scripture  on 
account  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  true  that  it  is  the  Christ  of  Scrip- 
ture and  none  other,  in  whom  we  believe.  But  we  believe  in  Him 
on  His  own  account." 

So  too  is  our  doctrine  of  justification  deeply  spiritual.  Faith  is 
an  act  of  the  human  soul,  and  it  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
It  requires  total  contact  of  the  soul  with  the  Holy  Ghost.     It  is 


202  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

by  faith  that  we  obtain  forgiveness;  for,  as  Luther  says:  What 
thou  believest  that  thou  hast.  Not  tliat  the  reason  of  f(.rgiveness 
lies  in  our  faith,  as  though  it  were  so  meritorious  an  act,  so  good 
a  work  that  God  must  reward  it ;  nor  in  our  love  which  proceeds 
from  faith ;  nor  in  our  repentance  which  begets  it ;  it  is  not  in  us, 
but  only  in  God  and  in  the  atoning  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is 
grace  alone,  and  nothing  else,  which  induces  God  to  pronounce 
our  pardon  and  to  receive  us  as  His  children. 

So  too  is  our  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments  profoundly  scriptural. 
In  Baptism  water  is  the  means  of  purification,  and  the  act  of 
washing  the  act  of  purification.  "  Baptism  signifies  purification 
from  sin — not  only  that  we  are  to  cleanse  ourselves,  but  that  God 
will  cleanse  us.  But  it  does  not  merely  signify  this;  it  gives  what 
it  signifies;  it  lays  the  foundation  of  Christian  life.  A  Christian 
life  is  a  life  of  communion  with  God.  The  obstacle  to  this  com- 
munion is  the  guilt  of  sin.  Our  first,  our  chief  want,  is  the  for- 
giveness of  sin.  Baptism  is  the  sacrament  of  the  cleansing  of  the 
conscience  from  guilt.  But  it  is  this  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  us 
with  God.  The  bond  of  our  communion  with  God  is  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  Spirit  of  reconciliation  unites  Himself  with  the  water 
of  purification,  and  baptism  is  the  covenant  of  a  good  conscience 
with  God." 

This  communion  with  God  must  become  a  matter  of  conscious- 
ness. And  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we  follow  baptism  by  con- 
firmation— not  as  Luthardt  says,  to  complete  baptism,  for  it  is 
completed  already ;  not  to  renew  it,  for  it  is  a  beginning  once  for 
all ;  but  that  the  baptized  may  express,  with  his  own  mouth  that 
confession  of  fiiith  upon  which  he  was  baptized,  that  his  covenant 
with  God  in  Baptism  may  be  the  covenant  of  his  conscious  choice 
and  that  he  may  receive  a  blessing  at  the  very  time  of  his  moral 
development  and  his  moral  danger. 

Confirmation  is  connected  with  the  first  reception  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  This  sacrament  is  indeed  a  holy  mystery,  the  highest  of 
all  exercises  in  which  the  soul  can  engage.  It  is  so  because  the 
Jklaster  has  put  the  formula  in  His  own  words— this  is  My  body, 
this  is  My  blood.  Hence  the  form  of  celebration  in  the  ancient 
Church  was  f(;r  the  minister  to  say  at  delivering  the  elements  to 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  203 

each  iudividual:  The  body  of  Christ,  the  blood  of  Christ,  the 
receiver  answering :  Amen. 

The  Romish  Church  and  the  Reformed  differ  from  the  Luth- 
eran, in  the  sense  in  which  the  sacrament  is  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  the  former  holding  that  the  bread  and  wine  are  miracu- 
lously changed,  and  the  latter  that  the  earthly  element  is  only  a 
sign  and  pledge  of  an  inward  spiritual  communion  of  believers 
with  Christ.  Our  Church  refuses  in  any  way  either  to  magnify 
or  minimize  the  words  of  institution,  and  therefore  takes  Christ's 
words  as  they  stand  and  as  St.  Paul  understood  when  he  said  : 
The  bread  is  the  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ,  the  cup  is  the 
communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ.  The  sacrament  seals  the 
promise  of  the  gospel.  It  individualizes,  as  Dr.  Jacobs  says,  that 
promise  with  every  giving  jf  the  bread  and  wine  to  the  communi- 
cant. "  Thus  faith,"  as  Dr.  Jacobs  further  says,  in  his  '  Elements 
of  Religion,'  "has  offered  to  it  its  surest  support;  since  it  is  the 
office  of  faith  to  change  the  plural  pronouns  of  the  gospel  into  the 
singular  number.  Instead  of  saying  God  loved  the  world,  it  gays 
with  Paul :  Christ  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me ;  and  in- 
stead of  our  Lord,  with  Thomas :  My  Lord  and  my  God."  For, 
as  the  Apology  sayetb,  Christ  causes  the  promise  of  the  gospel  to 
be  offered,  not  only  in  general,  but  through  the  sacraments,  which 
He  attaches,  as  the  seals  of  promise,  he  seals  and  thereby  espe- 
cially confirms  the  certainty  of  the  gospel  to  every  one  believing. 
Hence  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  of  Christ  is 
profoundly  spiritual.  Christ  must  come  into  direct  contact  with 
the  heart.  Our  conception  of  His  glorified  humanity  is  so  clear 
and  profound  and  spiritual  that  we  believe  He  can  and  does  come 
into  the  heart  in  His  whole  personality  and  dwell  there.  Indeed 
we  hold  that  the  whole  triune  God  is  the  inseparable  cojni)anion 
of  the  believer.  The  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  are  present 
always.  In  the  sacraments  they  are  not  only  present,  but  are 
especially  operative,  bringing  richest  blessing  to  the  heart  of  the 
believer.  Here  the  mystical  union  of  the  believer  with  Christ 
reaches  the  highest  culmination.  That  union,  says  Quenstedt, 
"  is  the  real  and  most  intimate  conjunction  of  the  substance  of 
the  sacred  Trinity  and  the  God-man  Christ,  with  the  substance  of 


201  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

believers,  effected  by  God  Himself  through  the  Gospel,  the  sacra- 
ineuts  and  faith  by  which  through  a  special  approximation  of  His 
essence,  and  by  a  gracious  operation,  Pie  is  in  them,  just  as  also 
believers  are  in  Him,  that  by  a  mutual  and  reciprocal  immauence 
or  indwelling,  they  may  partake  of  His  vivifying  power,  and  all 
His  mercies,  become  assured  of  the  grace  of  God  and  eternal  sal- 
vation, and  preserve  unity  in  the  faith,  and  love,  with  all  the 
members  of  His  mystical  body." 

Thus  will  it  always  be  that  Lutheranism,  founded  upon  the 
l)ure  word  of  God  as  expressed  in  her  symbols,  is  in  the  highest 
sense  spiritual  in  doctrine  and  worship.  She  need  not  go  outside 
of  herself  for  that  which  is  most  needful  for  the  development  of 
her  best  church  life.  True  to  the  Word  of  God  and  Luther's 
doctrine  pure,  she  will  continue  to  be  J<he  greatest  and  purest  re- 
ligious force  in  the  world.  And  it  is  a  matter  of  great  moment  to 
our  Church  that  there  is  good  ground  fur  the  hope,  that  the  future 
Lutheran  Church  of  America  will  be  the  most  spiritual  in  doc- 
trine and  worship  since  the  days  of  the  great  reformers,  who  gave 
back  to  the  Chui-ch  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  Luth- 
erans in  America  are  to-day  prizing  their  hc'ritage  as  never 
before.  The  treasures  of  Lutheran  spiritual  lore  are  rapidly 
being  translated  out  of  the  original  tongues,  and  hence  the  present 
generations  of  English  preachers,  teachers  and  readers  are  enjoy- 
ing privileges  and  making  such  use  of  them,  as  will  tell  miglitily 
for  the  future  welfare  not  only  of  our  Church,  but  for  the  uplift- 
ing  of  all  the  religious  forces  in  our  country.  Those  who  have 
not  had  enthusiasm  for  Lutheranism  have  for  the  most  part  never 
clearly  apprehended  the  ground  of  our  faith.  There  are  men 
who  have  never  read  Lutheran  l)ooks  and  whose  studies  have 
been  exclusively  along  Puritan  and  Arminian  lines.  Such  men 
may  view  the  growing  enthusiasm  among  our  younger  men  with 
alarm  and  regard  the  increasing  conservatism  in  our  schools  and 
of  the  press  indicative  of  return  to  the  dead  things  of  the  past. 
But  the  return  is  to  the  living  things  of  both  past  and  present,  to 
a  quickened  apprehension  of  the  spirituality  which  underlies, 
permeates  and  possesses  the  Lutheran  system  of  doctrine  and 
worship. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  205 

Lutheranism  in  America  promises  richer  trophies  than  our 
Church  has  ever  laid  upon  God's  altar.  Confessing  the  truth  in 
Jesus  as  set  forth  in  our  confession,  and  emphasiziug  the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul,  with  an  apprehension  of  things  spiritual  at  once 
clear  and  profound,  our  Church  presses  on,  fair  as  the  moon,  clear 
as  the  sun  and  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners !  The  aggres- 
siveness of  the  Church  of  Luther,  her  steadftxst  cleaving  to  the 
Word  of  God  in  an  age  of  doubt,  her  repudiation  of  liberalism  in 
theology  and  her  rejection  of  dead  orthodoxy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  vapid  emotionalism  on  the  other,  place  her  in  line  with 
the  most  spiritual  forces  of  evangelical  Christianity.  The  closing 
days  of  the  nineteenth  century  find  her  apprehension  of  divine 
truth  becoming  clearer  and  clearer,  while  the  realization  of  the 
vital  principles  which  are  the  basis  of  Christian  life,  becomes  more 
and  more  profound. 


DEACONESS    WORK. 

BY  W.  H.  DUNBAR,  D.D. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Fathers  and  Brethren  : 

Every  one  will  concede  that  the  importance  of  this  subject  of 
Deaconess  Work  necessarily  gives  it  a  place  in  any  programme 
of  religious  thought  in  these  days.  Aside  from  this  there  is  a  sort 
of  historical  justice  in  placing  it  on  the  programme  of  this  Con- 
ference. As  we  gather  to-day  in  this  noble  institution  some  of  us 
are  reminded  of  another  Conference  which  was  held  here  over  two 
years  ago,  when  representatives  of  our  general  Lutheranism  met 
face  to  face,  clasped  hands  and  sat  together  in  fraternal  fellow- 
ship and  spirit  to  discuss  matters  pertaining  to  the  ^Master's  work 
in  our  beloved  Church.  That  was  the  first  Free  Conference  of 
Lutherans.  The  leaven  has  been  working  out  results,  and  we 
rejoice  to-day  in  this  larger  gathering  and  claim  some  credit  for 
leading  the  way. 

Since  then  one  after  another  of  our  jNIotherhouses  have  been 
received  into  the  General  Conference  of  Lutheran  Deaconess 
houses  in  the  world.  May  we  not  indulge  the  hope  that  here 
again  the  Deaconess  cause  may  lead  the  way  and  make  possible 


206  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

a  great  ran-Lutheran  Conference  in  the  Nineteen  Iliuidreds,  in 
some  such  capacity  as  this  representing  the  more  than  50,000, 
000  Lutht-rans  in  all  lands? 


Frances  AVillard  is  reported  to  have  said  that  "  no  action  more 
freighted  with  hope  for  humanity  gilds  the  sunset  glories  of  the 
nineteenth  century  than  the  establishment  of  the  Order  of  Dea- 
conesses." This  is  only  a  striking  expression  of  what  has  become 
the  growing  conviction  of  every  one  at  all  interested  in  Christian 
work.  The  deaconess  movement  contains  latent  forces  for  ser- 
vice of  which  we  have  as  yet  formed  no  conception. 

At  the  same  time  there  are  some  important  problems  in  con- 
nection with  the  work  that  remain  unsettled.  We  are  bound  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  this  movement  needs  to  be  rightly  directed 
and  properly  developed.  The  Church  is  bound  to  face  the  prob- 
lems involved  in  this  development  and  needs  to  be  guided  by  the 
Spirit  to  the  right  solution. 

The  time  limit  of  this  paper  compels  me  to  confine  myself  to  a 
single  phase  of  the  very  general  subject  assigned.  What  I  have 
to  say  centers  in  the  thought  which  might  l)e  tersely  stated : 
The  Ecclesiastical  Female  Diaconate. 

Not  a  little  has  been  written  upon  "The  Female  Diaconate  of 
the  New  Testament."  The  study  has  been  valuable,  profitable 
and  necessary.  It  has  taken  us  to  the  right  beginning  of  the 
work  and  has  led  us  to  catch  its  true  spirit.  The  subject,  "  The 
Ecclesiastical  Female  Diaconate,"  is  not  taken  as  in  any  sense 
over  against  "  The  New  Testament  Female  Diaconate."  One 
who  is  justly  regarded  as  of  highest  and  soundest  authority  among 
us  declares  :  "  The  New  Testament  Diaconate  was  intended  to  be 
the  beginning  and  foundation  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Diaconate  with 
ever-expanding  powers  of  adaptation  to  the  supply  of  the  necessi- 
ties for  which  it  was  devised."  What  is  thus  said  of  the  Dia- 
conate can  be  said  of  the  Female  Diaconate  "The  Ecclesiastical 
Female  Diaconate  "  then  as  growing  out  of  the  "  Female  Diacon- 
ate of  the  New  Testament." 

To  make  it  more  specific  perhaps,  and  to  give  it  a  more  prac- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  207 

tical  trend,!  might  put  the  subject:  "  The  Church  and  the  Female 
Diaconate." 

In  the  discussion  of  this  subject  these  questions  arise  :  AVhat 
is  this  Ecclesiastical  Female  Diaconate  as  founded  upon  the 
Female  Diaconate  of  the  New  Testament  ?  What  is  the  proper 
relation  to  the  Church  of  the  Female  Diaconate  by  a  legitimate 
interpretation  of  or  inference  from  Holy  Scripture?  And  I 
think  in  attempting  to  answer  these  questions  we  will  be  forced 
to  face  these  further  questions: — What  is  the  wise  and  safe  course 
for  the  development  of  this  work?  What  is  the  relation  in  which 
it  will  develop  its  greatest  usefulness  f  Especially  this  :  What  is 
the  legitimate  and  correct  adaptation  of  this  wonderful  institution 
and  its  work  to  our  American  church  life  ? 

These  are  questions  which  interest  me  greatly,  both  as  a  pas- 
tor, and  as  one  having  officially  some  small  part  in  shaping  the 
course  of  development  of  this  work.  The  questions  are  vital  and 
have  an  all-important  bearing  on  the  corx-ect  settlement  of  all  the 
problems  involved  in  this  work.  They  are  questions  proper  for 
discussion  at  a  Free  Conference  like  this  where  no  one  is  respon- 
sible fur  the  views  of  any  other,  and  all  are  equally  interested  iu 
reaching  correct  conclusions. 

My  own  mind  was  first  led  to  an  earnest  consideration  of  this 
question  in  the  preparation  of  a  paper  on  "Parish  Work  in 
America"  for  the  First  Conference  of  Lutheran  Motherhouses  in 
the  United  States.  The  very  decided  conviction  to  which  I  was 
then  brought  was  that  what  was  probably  necessary  first  of  all 
and  more  than  anything  else,  in  order  that  the  deaconess  work 
might  properly  and  adequately  meet  the  needs  of  the  Church, 
was  a  clear  understanding  as  to  and  an  emphasizing  of  the  right 
relations  of  that  work  to  the  Church  aud  of  the  Church  to  it. 

The  position  I  was  then  led  to  take  was  that,  rightly  under- 
stood, the  deaconess  work  must  be  organically  connected  with 
the  Church.  Since  then  more  careful  study  has  confirmed  me 
in  this  conviction.  Aud  observation  has  led  me  to  feel  that  it  is 
the  only  wise  and  safe  position  at  least  in  this  country. 

It  is  probably  known  that  this  is  the  attitude  of  the  work  in 
our  own  General  Synod  for  which   I  stand.     The  hope  is  enter- 


208  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

tained  that  no  one  will  suspect  me  of  being  influeuced  by  preju- 
dice in  my  views  by  this  fact.  We  are  not  ready  by  any  means 
to  say  that  ours  is  the  model  institution — that  we  have  properly 
or  finally  solved  all  the  problems.  We  are  seeking  for  light, 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  we  are  making  our  way  through  a  new 
field. 

It  needs  scarcely  be  said  that  in  taking  this  position  we  do  not 
reflect  in  the  least  on  those  3Iotherhouses  that  do  not  have  such 
organic  connection  with  tlie  Church.  It  cannot  be  taken  so. 
There  are  institutions  of  deaconesses  whose  main  end  is  not  train- 
ing for  parish  work,  but  the  blessed  work  of  providing  for  the 
care  of  the  sick  and  injured,  for  hospital  service,  for  the  Chris- 
tian training  of  the  young.  We  would  not  say  one  word  to  reflect 
on  such  work.  After  all  it  does  not  go  to  the  heart  of  it.  It  is 
not  properly  the  deaconess  work  of  the  Church. 

The  European  Position  not  a  Guidk. 

In  taking  this  position  it  seems  we  are  not  in  line  with  the 
development  of  the  work  in  Europe.  Pastor  Goedel  informs  us 
that  "while  the  German  Motlierhouses,  without  exception,  stand 
in  most  friendly  relation  to  their  respective  churches,"  while 
"  they  preserve  their  connection  with  it  by  appointing  one  or 
more  chaplains  belonging  to  the  State  Church  by  training  and 
ordination,  by  acquiring  for  their  institutions  their  parochial 
riglits,  by  inviting  into  their  management  representatives  of  the 
church  government,  by  reporting  regularly  to  their  synods,  and, 
above  all,  by  the  ministrations  rendered  by  the  sisters  to  the 
individual  conjjroKations  with  direct  subordination  to  the  local 
I)ast()rates;  and  v/hile  the  Church  in  its  turn  reciprocates  by 
extending  to  the  Motherhouse  the  assistance  and  protection  of 
the  church  government,  and  by  the  sympathy  of  most  of  its 
ministers;  on  the  other  hand,  throughout  Germany,  and  with 
the  single  exception  of  the  London  Diocese  House,  throughout 
Europe,  none  of  the  Houses  connected  with  the  General  Con- 
ference up  to  the  present  time,  are  incorporated  into  the  organism 
of  the  Church." 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  209 

He  further  states  that  "  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  this  inde- 
pendence of  the  Motherhouses  has  really  been  a  blessing,  helping 
to  develop  the  free  ministry  of  Christian  charity." 

This  opinion  will  hardly  weigh  wntli  us  in  this  country  in 
favor  of  the  independent  Motherhouse,  For  the  conditions  are 
altogether  different. 

The  conditions  of  Christian  activity  are  different.  Wliatever 
may  be  the  situation  in  Germany  and  in  Europe,  in  this  country 
there  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  call  for  a  development  of  a  free 
ministry  of  Christian  charity  outside  the  Church.  The  fact  is 
that  already  outside  independent  charity  is  absorbing  the  re- 
sources and  energies  of  our  churches  to  the  very  great  cost  of 
our  work. 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  the  chureh  life  and  organiza- 
tion in  this  country  is  so  essentially  diflereut  from  that  in  Europe 
that  the  argument  from  conditions  there  will  not  apply  here. 
"NVe  can  see  reasons  for  keeping  a  movement  free  from  the 
domination  of  a  State  Church  which  would  not  apply  in  the 
remotest  way  to  a  Church  separated  from  the  State  as  ours  is  and 
must  remain. 

The  Only  Safe  Position. 

When  we  consider  the  conditions  of  Christian  activity  in  this 
country  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  safe  position 
fur  our  deaconess  work  in  its  relation  to  the  Church  is  that  of 
organic  connection. 

"VVe  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  no  institution  pos- 
sesses greater  possibilities  of  creating  wheels  within  a  wheel,  of 
forming  tremendous  circles  of  independent  influence  too  strong 
to  resist  or  control.  This  must  be  evident  to  any  one  who  has 
had  any  connection  with  the  work,  and  has  watched  it  with  any 
degree  of  thoughtfulness. 

Much  less  can  we  close  our  eyes  to  the  dominating  place  which 
certain  independent  religious  movements  have  assumed  in  this 
country.  Unchurchly  as  some  of  these  movements  are,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  they  have  taken  most  of  that  which  is 
good  in  them  from  churchly  institutions.  The  very  work  in 
1-i 


210  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

which  our  deaconesses  are  engaged  brings  them  in  contact  with 
all  these  varied  movements.  The  only  safety  in  the  midst  of 
these  conditions  is  to  keep  the  movement  and  the  work  in  direct 
connection  with  and  under  direct  control  of  the  Church. 

The  Position  to  Develop  its  Greatest  Usefulness. 

AVe  cannot  help  but  feel  that  in  the  line  of  this  relationship 
lies  the  result  of  greatest  and  highest  usefulness  from  the  move- 
ment for  the  world  and  the  race.  I  cannot  take  the  time  to 
develop  this  thought.  It  is  self-evident.  Believing  as  we  do 
that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  institution  divinely 
established  for  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel,  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  race  and  the  redemption  of  the  world,  we  cannot  help 
but  feel  that  this  movement  shall  best  serve  its  high  and  holy 
end  by  being,  as  it  were,  an  arm,  receiving  its  life  from  the 
Church,  moved  to  action  by  the  Church,  and  giving  its  service  to 
the  Church. 

The  Only  Right  Position. 

But  now,  aside  from  the  questions  of  safety,  or  wisdom,  or  use- 
fulness, is  the  question  of  i?/^A(/»/nc.:5^s.  What  is  the  right  rela- 
tion from  the  interpretation  of,  or  inference  from,  Holy  Scripture? 
We  believe  that  the  conclusion  of  a  careful  consideration  of  this 
question  will  be  that  the  separate  position  is  not  the  right  one — 
that  the  only  right  one  is  that  of  organic  connection. 

I  regret  that  time  will  allow  me  only  to  touch  upon  a  few  of 
these  considerations.  For  the  sake  of  brevity  and  conciseness  I 
will  apply  them  to  the  Female  Diaeonate  in  general,  the  Office ; 
to  the  Deaconess  in  the  Personal  capacity ;  to  the  Work  of  the 
Deaconess^  the  Service;  and  finally,  to  the  Motherhouse,  the  In- 
stitution. 

I. — The  Relation  of  the  Female  Diaconate  to  the 
Church. 

We  have  in  mind  now  the  Office.  NViuit,  by  direct  teaching, 
or  by  inference  from  Scripture,  is  the  relation  of  tlie  Office  to 
the  Church  ? 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  211 

lu  trying  to  answer  this  question  a  plain  principle  must  be  had 
in  mind.  I  quote  from  no  less  an  authority  than  Kev.  Dr.  Henry 
E.  Jacobs,  to  set  forth  this  principle :  "  In  tiio  study  of  all  New 
Testament  passages  concerning  the  details  of  Church  organiza- 
tion, as  well  as  concerning  the  spheres  of  doctrine  and  worship," 
there  is  to  be  "carefully  observed  "  "the  law  of  growth."  "All 
revelation  has  followed  this  law,  and  everything  pertaining  to 
the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  pursues  the  same  course.  We 
might  as  well  expect  to  find  in  the  New  Testament  a  complete 
system  of  Dogmatics  and  Ethics,  or  an  elaborate  Church  Service, 
as  to  find  a  Diaconate  characterized  by  all  the  features  and  details 
of  organization  that  has  been  found  serviceable  in  the  experience 
of  the  Church  throughout  succeeding  ages."  It  is  indeed  true 
that  "  ever3''thiug  that  is  contrary  to,  or  inconsistent  with.  Holy 
Scripture  must  be  surrendered.  Everything  also  that  can  not 
be  found  to  proceed  from  Holy  Scripture  by  a  legitimate  appli- 
cation of  its  principles  must  be  repudiated.  But  we  can  not 
confine  our  teaching  to  the  very  words  of  inspiration  \vithout 
doing  a  great  injustice  to  Him  who  has  given  these  words  to  be 
the  germs  of  the  Church's  faith  and  life,  that  shall  bring  forth  a 
harvest  until  tlie  work  of  grace  on  earth  is  completed.  AVe  can 
not  force  ourselves  back  into  the  moulds  of  the  life  of  the  Church 
of  Apostolic  times." 

This  same  principle  applies  to  the  Female  Diaconate.  No 
advocate  of  the  institution  would  claim  that  all  its  good  features 
are  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament.  Indeed,  the  institutional 
diaconate  cannot  be  said  to  be  found  there.  But  the  germ  is 
there — that  out  of  which  it  grew. 

It  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  the  features  of  the  or- 
ganized Church  of  to-day  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  Church  of 
Apostolic  timci.  This,  too,  has  been  subject  to  the  same  law  of 
growth.  The  first  idea  of  a  congregation  was  that  of  two  or  three 
believers,  gathered  in  the  name  of  Christ.  The  germ  was  there. 
Out  of  this  came  the  later  conception  of  the  congregation  as  any 
number  of  believers,  and  then  of  the  Church  as  an  organized 
body  to  which  were  committed  certain  clearly  defined  duties. 

So  the  question  resolves  itself  into  this  :    What  is  the  Female 


212  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Diaconate,  and  what  is  its  proper  relation  to  the  Church  as  foimded 
upon  plain  inference  froin  Scripture  f  To  answer  tliis  we  must 
ask  :  Whence  did  the  Female  Diaconate  originate?  What  was 
its  purpose  f  What  its  authority  f  These  questions  open  a  wide 
range  for  discussion.  We  can  only  take  conclusions.  And  for 
our  purpose  this  is  all  that  is  necessary.  We  will  take  the  con- 
clusions arrived  at  with  so  much  clearness  by  Dr.  Jacobs  in  his 
paper  on  "The  Female  Diaconate  of  the  New^  Testament." 

What  is  the  Origin  of  the  Office  ?  Dr.  Jacobs  says  :  "  It  was 
a  true  growtli  from  the  Diaconate,  as  the  Diaconate  itself  sprang 
from  the  Presbyterate  or  Pastoral  office."  It  would  be  profitable 
to  follow  this  development  as  it  has  been  so  interestingly  traced 
out  by  Dr.  Jacobs.  The  very  fact  of  this  origin  is  enough  to 
indicate  its  proper  relationship  to  the  Church. 

What  was  the  Purpose  of  the  Office?  Dr.  Jacobs  finds  that 
"  with  the  growth  of  the  congregation,  the  work  of  administra- 
tion, which,  in  the  beginning,  had  been  exceedingly  simple,  had 
grown. to  such  proportions  that,  if  it  were  to  be  efficiently  ren- 
dered, a  division  and  further  organization  of  labor  were  neces- 
sary." Out  of  this  necessity  grew  the  Diaconate,  to  which  were 
transferred  certain  official  duties  of  the  congregation.  "  With 
the  growth  of  the  Church  it  had  been  found,  further,  that  there 
were  spheres  in  its  administrative  work  where  even  the  Diaconate 
could  not  enter  until  its  scope  were  enlarged  so  as  to  admit  of  the 
work  of  the  women."     Hence  came  the  Female  Diaconate. 

What  was  its  Authority  f  Dr.  Jacobs  says :  "  The  Presbyter 
.  .  .  became  the  mouthpiece  of  God  in  so  far  as  He  was  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  congregation  of  believers  to  which  God  had 
given  tiie  authority  to  speak  in  His  name."  So  naturally  comes 
the  next  statement:  "So  the  work  of  the  Diaconate  was  also  a 
purely  representative  work."  The  same  follows  of  the  Female 
Diaconate. 

So  we  must  come  to  the  very  natural  conclusion  tliat  tliere  can 
be  no  true  diaconate,  male  or  female,  unless  organically  associated 
with  the  Church,  in  its  nature  gaining  its  power  and  authority 
from  the  Church,  in  its  work  subordinate  to  the  Church,  and  in 
its  results  serving  the  Church. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  213 

And  this  leads  us  to  some  practical  conclusious  with  reference  to 

II. — The  Relation  of  the  Deaconesses  Themselves  to 
THE  Church. 

This  may  be  inferred  from  the  relation  of  the  Female  Diacon- 
ate, — tlie  Office.     There  is,  however,  more  direct  light. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  office  of  the  diaconate  of 
women  is  mentioned  in  Romans  15:  1,  2.  Phojbe  was  "a  deacon 
of  the  Church."  Tiiere  is  only  one  other  passage  in  the  New 
Testament  which  can  fairly  be  said  to  refer  to  the  subject  in  any 
clear  or  direct  way,  1  Tim.  3:11.  But  these  are  sufficient  to 
establish  the  feet  of  the  office  existing,  and  from  them  may  be 
inferred  what  is  to  be  the  relation  to  the  Church  of  those  holding 
the  office. 

"  Phoebe  was  a  deacon  or  servant  of  the  Church."  The  dea- 
coness is  to  be  a  servant  of  the  Church,  giving  her  energies  and 
service  to  the  Church,  This  idea  belongs  to  the  very  spirit  of  the 
Female  Diaconate. 

"Phrebe  was  a  deaco7i  of  the  Church."  That  is,  she  held  an 
Office  to  which  she  was  set  apart  by  the  Church  at  Cenchrea. 
"it  is  not  an  office  which  she  has  assumed  for  herself,  or  one 
transmitted  by  external  succession  from  other  deacons  ;  but  the 
congregation  at  Cenchrea  has  called  her,  and  set  her  apart  to  the 
work.  She  thus  becomes,  and  remains  even  while  at  Rome,  an 
officer  of  the  Cenchrean  Church."  This  the  true  deaconess  must 
remain  in  her  relation  to  the  Church. 

In  this  office  the  Deaconess  must  be  regarded  as  A  Miniver  of 
the  Church.  She  is  not  primarily  either  a  nurse  or  a  teacher. 
In  both  these  offices  others  might  take  her  place  and  fill  it  just  as 
well  as  she  can.  Her  ministry  is  not  a  ministry  of  the  word  or 
sacrament,  but  a  ministry  of  mercy,  a  miaistry  of  the  Chuich,  for 
the  Church  and  by  authority  of  the  Church. 

And  this  suggests  some  thoughts  as  to 

III. — The  Relation  of  the  Deaconess  Wokk  to  the 

Church. 
This  work  was  not  in  the  New  Testament  and  can  not  now  be 
a  mere  philanthropic  work.     It  is  not  to  be  a  mere  work  of  char- 


214  PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

ity  in  ministering  to  temporal  needs.  Its  end  and  aim  is  at  once 
deeper  and  higher,  viz.,  to  save  souls  lost  in  sin  for  Christ.  This 
is  the  end  ;  the  others  are  means.  As  the  work  fails  in  this  it 
loses  its  commanding  position,  and  the  deaconess  becomes  no  more 
than  a  professional  nurse,  or  an  ordinary  parish  visitor,  or  a 
mechanical  agent  and  tract  distributer.  This  is  not  her  work  as 
a  minister  of  the  Church  and  in  her  high  office. 

This  work  must  have  the  endorsement  of  the  Church.  This  is 
recognized  even  in  the  work  in  Germany  where  there  is  no 
organic  connection.  They  are  careful  to  secure  parochial  rights. 
In  this  country  with  our  different  form  of  free  church  organization 
this  must  mean  a  much  more  direct  control. 

Furthermore  the  work  must  be  done  under  the  immediate  di- 
rection of  the  minister  as  the  head  of  the  congregation  in  which 
she  serves.  This  is  self-evident.  Without  this  the  work  might 
easily  become,  and  probably  would  soon  become,  a  disorganizing 
factor  in  a  congregation.  The  very  work  of  a  deaconess  gives 
her  a  ground  of  vantage.  Her  influence  in  a  congregation  may 
become  simply  enormous.  This  too  is  recognized  in  the  work  in 
Germany.  We  are  told  that  the  services  are  rendered  "  with  di- 
rect suboi'dination  to  the  local  pastorates." 

It  is  understood,  however,  that  this  relation  does  not  limit  the 
sphere  of  activity  to  mere  congregational  work.  Pha3be  was  ^3ent  to 
Rome.  So  our  Deaconesses  are  sent  to  the  Foreign  Mission  fields. 
But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  it  is  still  the  work  of  the  Church. 

We  can,  on  the  other  hand,  find  no  authority  to  make  this 
high  calling  subserve  the  ends  and  aims  of  independent  religious 
movements  outside  the  Church.  Experience  has  already  taught  us 
that  this  is  a  diversion  of  this  force  against  which  we  must  guard. 
Our  Deaconesses  must  not  be  allowed  to  become  the  agents  for 
the  furtherance  of  this  or  that  popular  religious  or  moral  m  we- 
ment  in  these  modern  times. 

Just  a  word  as  to 

IV. — Thr  Relation  of  the  Mothrrhouse  to  the  Church. 

The  idea  of  the  Motherhouse  must  be  very  firmly  fixed,  and 

the  Motherhouse  must  be  regarded  aithe  great  centre  of  all  Dea- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  215 

coness  work.  From  this  must  emanate  the  general  rules  for  the 
conduct  of  the  work.  To  this  the  Deaconess  must  be  subject. 
This  is  absolutely  necessary  in  order  that  this  work  may  become 
of  permanent  value  to  the  Church. 

But  on  the  other  hand  that  IMotherhouse  must  be  very  closely 
related  to  the  Church, — gain  its  lieadship  from  the  Church,  and 
be  responsible  to  the  Church.  We  believe  that  this  will  be  the 
ultimate  position  of  the  INtotherhouse  in  the  proper  development 
of  the  work.  It  is  to  be  a  training-school,  not  for  nurses,  not  for 
skilled  teachers,  but  with  a  distinct  reference  to  spiritual  and 
church  work.  It  stands,  therefore,  in  its  own  distinct  place  just 
in  the  same  relation  to  the  Church  that  a  Theological  Seminary 
does.  An  independent  Deaconess  Motherhouse  would  appear  to 
be  in  an  abnormal  position, — just  as  much  so  as  an  independent 
Theological  Seminary. 

The  limit  of  time  has  compelled  me  to  present  many  of  these 
thoughts  in  the  crudest  possible  way.  I  have  only  been  able  to 
suggest  some  of  the  thoughts  that  come  to  us  in  connection  with 
this  phase  of  the  work.  Slowly  and  surely  we  are  moving  forward 
in  these  last  days  toward  the  settlement  of  some  of  the  greatest 
practical  problems  of  Christian  work.  In  all  the  quickened 
activity  in  the  religious  world  there  is  none  so  full  of  promise  as 
the  restoration  of  the  Female  Diaconate.  If  it  be  properly  di- 
rected we  confidently  believe  it  will  bring  forth  the  richest  and 
most  abundant  fruits  unto  a  golden  harvest.  The  Church  needs 
it.  The  need  is  felt  everywhere.  The  closer  we  can  bring  the 
movement  to  the  Church,  the  more  closely  we  can  identify  it  with 
the  Church,  the  richer  the  results  for  the  Church  and  for  the 
Deaconess'  work. 

I  should  have  liked  to  have  said  a  word  upon  another  subject 
closely  related  to  this.  To  my  mind  the  time  is  at  hand  for  action 
on  the  part  of  the  Church  looking  to  the  restoration  of  the  New 
Testament  Male  Diaconate,  or  rather  for  a  careful  study  of  the 
subject  with  a  view  to  adapting  it  to  the  needs  of  our  modern 
Church-life.  The  demand  is  pressing.  No  living  man  can  do 
the  work  at  present  laid  upon  him  and  expected  of  him  in  a  large 


L'lU  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

city  or  country  pastorate  without  being  hopelessly  inefficient  in 
some  or  in  all,  or  becoming  a  premature  physical  wreck.  No 
man  can  bear  the  strain  of  being  preacher,  pastor,  executive  offi- 
cer, social  leader  and  meeting  the  expectation  of  his  people  to  be 
a  success  in  them  all.  AVe  need  men  trained  specially  for  parish 
work  as  our  deaconesses  are  trained.  Dr.  Edward  F.  Williams, 
in  his  excellent  book  on  "  The  Christian  Life  in  Germany,"  has 
a  most  interesting  chapter  on  the  movement  in  this  direction  in 
that  country.  It  is  probable  that  nothing  would  serve  the  ends 
of  such  a  conference  as  this  better  than  to  propose  a  joint  com- 
mission of  all  Lutherans  to  consider  the  establishment  of  a  great 
Training  School  for  Deacons  in  this  country. 

AVe  had  brought  before  our  mental  vision  last  evening  a  beau- 
tiful ideal ;  but  even  as  our  hearts  thrilled  with  joyful  pulsations 
at  the  very  thought  of  the  great  University  of  a  common  Luth- 
eranisra  in  this  land,  the  shadow  of  present  conditions,  the  result 
of  past  mistakes  and  misunderstandings,  was  flung  over  the  bright- 
ness of  our  hopes.  May  it  not  be  that  in  line  of  this  movement, 
untranimeled  by  the  prejudice  of  untoward  circumstances,  is  the 
hope,  not  of  organic  union,  but  of  united  action  on  the  broad  and 
deep  foundations  of  God's  Word? 

THE  BEGINNINGS  AND  SOME  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE 
DEACONESS  MOTHERHOUSE. 

REV.  W.  A.  PASSAVANT,  JR. 

Kaiserswerth  on  the  Rhine  has  always  been  a  Roman  Catholic 
town.  Its  old  Romanesque  church  of  the  twelfth  century  contains 
in  a  reli*iuary  the  bones  of  St.  Suitbertus,  a  native  of  Ireland* 
who  first  preached  the  Gospel  in  710.  On  the  banks  of  the  river 
still  stand  the  ruins  of  the  palace  from  which  the  young  Emperor, 
Henry  IV,  was  carried  off  in  1062  to  a  vessel  belonging  to  his 
wily  guardian  Hanno,  Archbishop  of  Cologne.  In  1000  there 
was  but  one  Protestant  in  the  town,  and  he,  a  pastor  Sonderraann, 
was  in  prison  for  preaching  the  Gospel,  where  he  perished  miser- 
al)ly  by  a  true  martyr's  death. 

Hither,  in  the  latter  juirt  of  the  lust  century,  the  starting  of  a 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  217 

silk  factory  attracted  a  number  of  Protestant  families.  Two  lit- 
tle congregations,  a  Lutheran  and  Reformed,  struggled  for  exis- 
tence until  the  Union  in  1817  which  blended  tliem  in  one  and 
made  the  united  congregation  part  of  the  Established  Church  of 
Prussia.  To  this  parish,  Theodore  Fliedner,  a  young  candidate 
of  theology,  just  al)out  to  seek  an  appointment  in  a  high  school, 
was  chosen  pastor.  The  salary  was  $135  a  year  and  a  debt  of 
several  thousand  dollars  rested  on  the  property.  But  he  joyfully 
accepted  the  proposal  as  a  call  from  God,  and  three  days  before 
his  twenty-second  birthday  (January  18,  1822)  Fliedner  entered 
Kaiserswerth  on  foot. 

As  his  parish  was  very  poor  and  in  debt,  he  visited  Holland 
and  England  to  gather  funds  and  collect  a  small  endowment  for 
its  support.  As  it  was  small  he  had  time  to  interest  himself  in 
the  forlorn  prisoners  in  the  jail  at  Diisseldorf,  six  miles  away. 
Their  condition  of  spiritual  neglect  pierced  his  heart,  and  their 
position  when  discharged  appealed  keenly  to  his  sympathy.  The 
condition  of  the  hospitals  also  lay  heavy  upon  his  thoughts. 
The  attendants  were  incompetent,  brutal,  and  often  worse,  and 
no  regular  provision  was  made  for  the  sweet  consolation  of  the 
Gospel  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying.  He  opened  a  little 
house  in  his  garden,  10x10  feet  in  size,  for  a  woman  discharged 
from  prison  who  wished  to  lead  a  Christian  life.  Others  came? 
a  larger  house  was  filled — but  the  helpers  ! — Ah,  here  the  great 
crying  want  that  meets  every  merciful  agency  and  institution 
even  yet,  stared  him  in  the  face.     There  were  none. 

All  about  him  open  doors  to  rescue  the  fallen,  care  for  the 
sick  and  teach  neglected  children,  invited  his  entrance,  but  little 
or  nothing  could  be  done.  "Did  not,"  he  says,  "such  abuses 
cry  to  heaven  against  us  ?  Did  not  that  terrible  saying  of  our 
Lord  apply  to  us :  'I  was  sick  and  in  prison  and  ye  visited  me 
not?'  If  the  Church  of  Apostolic  days  had  made  use  of  Chris- 
tian women,  under  the  title  of  '  Deaconesses,'  and  if  for  many 
centuries  the  Church  had  continued  to  appoint  such  Deaconesses, 
why  should  we  longer  delay  the  revival  of  such  an  office  ?  The 
disposition  to  active  compassion  for  the  suffering  of  others,  says 
Luther,  is  stronger  in  women  than  in  men.     It  is  only  necessary 


218  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

that  this  inborn  gift  should  be  aroused  and  cherished  in  such 
women  to  render  them  suitable  for  the  office  of  Deaconess,  and 
there  must  be  institutions  erected  in  which  they  can  be  trained 
for  the  care  of  the  sick,  the  destitute,  or  the  criminal."  "  The 
quietness  of  retired  Kaiserswerth  would  be  very  advantageous," 
he  thought,  "to  such  a  training  school,  and  God  could  send 
thither  the  needful  money,  the  sick  people  and  the  nurses  too." 

In  vain  Fliedner  pleaded  with  neighboring  pastors  of  richer 
and  more  influential  congregations  to  begin  the  work.  The 
Lord  bad  selected  him,  and  when  in  the  spring  of  1836  the 
largest  house  in  town  was  offered  for  sale,  he  bought  it  with  not 
a  dollar  for  the  first  payment.  Soon  after  Gertrude  Reichardt, 
a  young  woman  of  proven  Christian  character,  offered  to  come 
on  the  20th  of  October  as  the  first  probationer.  But  so  great 
was  Fliedner's  ardor  to  begin,  that  the  first  Deaconess  Mother- 
house  in  the  xvorld  %vas  opened  October  13,  1836,  without  a 
deaconess. 

The  ground  floor  was  arranged  for  the  expected  patients : 
"  One  table,  some  chairs  with  half  broken  arms,  a  few  worn 
knives,  forks  with  only  two  prongs,  worm-eaten  bedsteads,  and 
other  similar  furniture  that  had  been  given  to  us.  In  such  hum- 
ble guise  did  we  begin  our  task,  but  with  great  joy  and  praise,  for 
we  knew,  we  felt  that  here  the  Lord  had  prepared  a  place  for 
Himself."  The  hospital  received  its  first  patient  October  18, 
1836,  and  she  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  an  earnest  of  tlie  Christ- 
like charity  that  to-day  welcomes  to  thousands  of  deaconess  insti- 
tutions through  the  world  the  sick,  distressed  and  outcast  without 
distinction  of  creed,  nationality  or  color. 
*  *  ^  *^^  *  *  ■^ 

Ten  years  have  passed,  and  a  young  American  clergyman  of 
twenty-five  is  walking  the  streets  of  London.  A  sudden  shower 
drives  him  into  the  shelter  of  an  open  doorway,  whence  he  dis- 
covers before  hira  a  stately  building  erected  by  a  pious  Jew  to 
perpetuate  the  virtues  of  his  deceased  wife.  It  bore  upon  the 
memorial  tablet  over  its  chief  entrance  the  simple  .inscription  : 
"  Within  the  orphan  shall  find  compassion."  With  deep  emo- 
tion Dr.  I'assavant,  for  it  was  he,  examined  the  beautiful  edifice. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  219 

made  himself  familiar  with  its  management,  and  when  he  turned 
away  there  had  been  formed  within  him  a  resolution  to  begin  a 
like  institution  in  America,  for  Christ  and  the  Church.  It  was 
the  turning  point  in  his  life.  By  walking  from  the  meeting  of 
the  Evangelicnl  Alliance,  to  which  he  was  a  delegate,  to  his 
stopping  place  he  saved  a  shilling.  It  was  laid  aside  as  the 
beginning  of  a  work  of  mercy. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  reached  Kaiserswerth  and  saw  with 
amazement  how  wonderfully  God  had  blessed  the  deaconess 
cause.  The  Motherhouse  already  numbered  108  sisters,  62  being 
upon  19  outside  stations.  The  Dresden  Motherhouse  for 
Saxony  had  been  founded  and  preparations  were  making  to 
begin  a  Motherhouse  in  London,  to  which  five  sisters  had  been 
sent  the  previous  year  for  the  newly  established  German  Hospital. 

An  earnest  plea  was  entered  for  deaconesses  for  America. 
Rev.  Passavant  also  left  a  sum  of  money  that  chosen  sisters 
might  be  especially  trained,  and  he  exacted  a  promise  that  they 
be  sent  over  within  two  years.  But  1848  was  the  year  of  Louis 
Napoleon's  coup  d'etat,  and  of  universal  political  agitation  and 
revolution  throughout  Germany;  and  though  the  house  was 
rented  for  the  expected  deaconesses  and  stood  vacant  for  eight 
months,  they  did  not  come.  It  was  not  until  1849  that  Theodore 
Fliedner  arrived  in  Pittsburg,  assisted  in  the  dedication  of  the 
hospital  that  had  been  opened  in  January,  and  on  July  17th 
solemnly  installed  the  four  deaconesses  he  had  brought  with  him 
in  thisjirst  Protestant  Church  Hospital  in  America.  The  seed  had 
been  transplanted  and  the  friends  of  the  cause  looked  to  see  a 
flourishing  Motherhouse  after  the  pattern  of  Kaiserswerth  arise 
on  these  shores.  The  outlook  was  promising.  Probationers  pre- 
sented themselves,  and  on  May  28,  1850,  Louise  Marthens  was 
solemnly  consecrated  the  first  American  deaconess.  But  she 
never  wore  the  deaconess  habit ;  and  though  the  Institution 
of  Protestant  Deaconesses  of  Allegheny  Co.,  Pa.,  was  chartered 
in  the  same  year,  no  other  deaconess  was  consecrated  under  its 
auspices  until  1891 — an  interval  of  forty-one  years. 
^  *  *  *  *■*  *  ^ 

Just  here  a  question  suggests  itself  that  has  been  often  asked : 


220  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Why  was  it  that  Dr.  Passavaiit,  though  rightly  denominated  "tlie 
Pioneer  of  Deaconess  work  in  America,"  so  signally  failed  in  this 
first  attempt  to  establish  a  deaconess  Motherhouse  and  a  growing 
Sisterhood  ?  A  number  of  surface  reasons  can  be  given  which 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  project  ivas  premature  and  under 
the  existing  circumstances  doomed  to  disoppointment. 

1st.  The  Avhole  subject  of  the  wider  spheres  for  women's  activ- 
ity was  just  beginning  to  be  agitated.  The  training  of  women 
for  nurses  had  only  been  attempted  a  few  years  before  in  Lon- 
don at  the  suggestion  of  Elizabeth  Fry.  But  the  training  school 
had  not  been  a  success  and  a  world  of  prejudices,  religious,  social, 
professional,  hedged  in  those  who  longed  to  give  their  sympathy, 
service  and  life  to  the  sick  and  f^uftering.  Not  until  Florence 
Nightingale — and  she  voluntarily  took  her  training  at  Kaisers- 
werth,  amid  the  horrors  of  that  winter  of  '54  and  '55,  in  the  mili- 
tary hospitals  of  the  Crimea — broke  down  this  Chinese  wall  of 
stupid  prejudice  and  exhibited  nursing  as  an  art  peculiarly  suited 
to  women's  deft  fingers  and  delicate  intuitions  and  tact,  was  it 
admitted  that  woman  could  honor  her  sex  and  bless  the  world  as 
a  Christian  nurse. 

2d.  It  must  be  remembered  that  there  were  comparatively  few 
hospitals  in  this  country  of  any  kind,  and  the  Lutheran  Church 
had  neither  hospital,  orphanage  nor  asylum  in  which  to  employ 
deaconesses.  Nor  indeed  had  any  other  church  save  the  Koman 
Catholic.  Dr.  Muhlenberg's  appeal  for  funds  for  the  founding 
of  St.  Luke's  in  New  York — the  first  institution  of  the  kind  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  though  not  successful,  until  five  years  later, 
really  grew  out  of  the  Pittsburgh  hospital.  Where  there  is  no 
demand  for  workers  and  no  field  for  them,  few  will  respond. 

3d.  Tli(!  Lutheran  Churcii  fifty  years  ago  was  exceedingly 
deficient  in  its  facilities  for  female  education.  How  could  tiie 
deacone.'^s  cause  appeal  successfully  therefore  to  its  untrained  and 
uneducated  women  ?  Says  Dr.  Passavant  in  the  Missionary  of 
1852,  upon  this  very  point:  "We  have  seven  theological  semi- 
naries, four  classical  schools,  and  five  colleges  for  the  education 
of  our  young  men,  and  two  female  seminaries  on  paper.  It  shows 
the  wrong  estimation  we  have  put  upon  female  character,  and  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  221 

slight  value  we  attach  to  female  education.  The  undeveloped 
talents  and  capacities  of  the  female  mind  among  us  are  too  great 
for  our  feeble  words  to  describe.  All  the  elements  of  greatness, 
goodness  and  truth  are  here ;  but  in  how  many  instances  are  they 
yet  in  the  quarry !  There  are  endowments  that  would  give  the 
Church  characters  like  those  of  Phoebe,  Persis,  Mrs.  Fry  and  Miss 
Dix — splendid  for  their  noble  forgetfulness  of  self,  and  their  sub- 
lime consecration  of  body  and  soul  to  the  relief  of  human  woe. 
Our  present  policy  is  neither  scriptural  nor  hopeful.  It  is  alike 
unjust  to  the  female  sex  and  to  the  Church  of  Christ." 

4th.  Nor  were  the  principles  or  methods  of  the  female  diacon- 
ate  at  all  understood.  It  is  true  the  visit  of  Theodore  Fliedner 
and  the  establishment  of  this  first  deaconess  hospital  excited  wide 
interest.  Both  secular  and  religious  papers  commented  upon 
them,  and  for  the  most  part  favorably.  Fliedner  made  several 
addresses  in  America,  and  appeared  in  person  before  the  New 
York  Ministerium,  which  he  addressed  in  the  English  language 
upon  the  object  of  the  founding  of  the  Kaiserswei'th  Deaconess 
Institution  and  the  urgent  need  of  the  Synod's  cooperation  with 
the  recently  established  branch  at  Pittsburg.  Resolutions  of 
sympathy  for  the  deaconess  cause  were  unanimously  adopted,  and 
the  Synod  resolved  that  "  we  await  with  deep  interest  the  result 
of  the  effort  made  in  its  behalf  at  Pittsburg."  Similar  resolu- 
tions by  the  Pittsburg  Synod  were  alike  effective.    They  all  waited. 

In  the  meantime  the  Motherhouse  was  dominated  by  the  Hos- 
pital, ever  a  wretched  method  of  beginning.  Its  forty  beds  made 
it  not  a  Motherhouse,  but  a  workhouse.  The  exertions  of  the 
Sisters  in  caring  for  917  patients  through  the  first  four  years, 
during  which  cholera  broke  out  in  and  an  epidemic  of  small-pox 
devastated  the  city,  left  no  time  for  recuperation,  self-culture  or 
spiritual  refreshment.  Dr.  Passavant  himself  could  give  little 
of  that  personal  attention  to  the  inner  life  of  the  sisters  nor  the 
systematic  training  of  probationers  that  is  essential  for  a  Motlier- 
house.  In  1850  he  projected  and  carried  out  the  plan  of  establish- 
ing four  branch  missions  from  his  church — itself  still  burdened 
with  $16,000  of  debt.  With  Prof  Reynolds  he  spent  weeks  that 
summer  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  in  the  interests  of  the  Norwe- 


222  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

gian  and  Swedish  imniigrants,  and  to  save  them  from  the  unscru- 
pulous proselyting  efforts  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  German 
and  English  work  of  his  own  Synod,  the  establishing  of  the  Or- 
phans' Home  in  1851,  the  erection  of  the  new  hospital  building 
the  same  year,  and  the  additional  work  on  the  Mmiotiary  left  the 
infant  deaccmess  community  without  adequate  supervision,  and 
often  without  a  head.     Disintegration  could  not  fail  to  follow. 

5th.  But  there  were  sinister  influences  at  work  hostile  to  the 
movement.  The  political  world  in  the  United  States  was  agitated 
at  that  time  by  passions  that  religious  bigotry  and  intolerance 
intensified  to  fever  heat.  The  large  emigration  of  Germans  afler 
the  revolution  of  '48  and  the  incoming  of  many  Scandinavians, 
together  with  the  aggressiveness  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  the  de- 
cade before,  created  apprehensions  of  grave  perils  to  American 
institutions  in  timid  minds.  Anti-Popish  riots  in  Boston  and 
Philadelphia  led  to  bloodshed  and  a  frenzy  of  hostility  to  every- 
thing that  seemed  to  indicate  the  faintest  similarity  to  anything 
connected  with  the  Roman  Church.  The  hatred  of  and  agitation 
against  foreigners  reached  its  climax  in  the  organization  of  the 
"  Knowuothing  Party,"  and  the  putting  forth  of  their  candidate 
in  the  presidential  election  of  1854.  The  tide  of  prejudice  was 
so  strong  that  the  deaconess  "  habit  "  was  permanently  laid  aside, 
and  more  than  once  the  sisters  were  assailed  by  the  public  press. 
The  charge  was  that  they  were  Roman  Catholics  in  disguise  and  had 
taken  vows  of  celibacy.  These  continual  misunderstandings  and 
concessions  to  blind  and  unreasoning  prejudice  could  not  but 
have  "  an  injurious  effect  both  upon  the  Institution  and  the  In- 
firmary under  its  care." 

After  this  short  resume  of  the  attempted  beginnings  of  t!ie  Dea- 
coness work  in  the  United  States  it  may  be  W'ell  to  point  out 
briefly  a  few  of  the  principles  that  seem  to  be  essential  to  a  suc- 
cessful Motherhouse  in  this  country.  I  do  this  with  considerable 
diffidence  knowing  that  upon  these  points  there  are  perhaps  dif- 
ferences of  opinion. 

I.  The  Deaconess  Motherhouse  we  ])elieve  to  be  a  jmxluct  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  working  in  His  Church  through  the  Word,  and 
a  visible  realization  of  the  plan  of  the  Church's  Head.  The  Church 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  223 

is  a  community  of  believers  in  the  Holy  Ghost — the  communion 
of  those  being  sanctified.  This  "  communion  "  is  invisible.  But 
through  the  Word — Avhich  is  the  voice  and  potency  of  God — 
individual  believers  are  not  only  invisibly  united  to  their  Head, 
Jesus  Christ,  but  are  visibly  united  in  the  unity  of  doctrine,  sym- 
metry of  life  and  l)eauty  of  worship  in  the  external  Church. 
Creeds  and  confessions,  church  government  and  machinery  and 
the  blending  of  music  and  art  in  divine  worship  are  the  flowers 
and  fruits  of  this  "seed  of  the  kingdom."  All  of  which,  how- 
ever, is  conditioned  and  safeguarded  by  the  Lutheran  principle 
"that  what  is  not  against  the  Gospel  is  for  it." 

Now  that  there  has  been  and  is  a  constant  development  of  the 
rich  fruitage  of  the  Spirit's  presence  and  activity  through  the 
living  Word  in  the  Church,  is  a  fact  of  history  and  our  own  daily 
experience.  The  simple  creed  formula  of  the  early  Church,  "Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,"  has  ex- 
panded into  the  matchless  fulness  of  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
The  simple  community  life  of  the  Apostolic  congregations  has 
grown  into  the  vast  and  complex  machinery  of  our  Episcopal 
Consistorial  and  Synodical  governments  and  the  multiform  acti- 
vities of  mission,  educational  and  merciful  boards  and  organiza- 
tions. 

If  there  be  direct  Scripture  warrant  for  the  office  of  the  female 
diaconate  (and  that  among  us  is  settled  beyond  dispute),  then 
the  direct  sanction  of  God  for  the  communities  of  Levites,  those 
servants  of  the  Old  Testament  Church,  His  evident  blessing  for 
sixty  years  upon  the  communities  of  Deaconesses,  these  servants 
of  the  New  Testament  Church,  their  marvellous  adaptability  to 
the  relief  in  Christ's  spirit  and  in  the  name  of  His  Church  of  the 
mass  of  misery  and  degradation  existing  in  our  enormous  city 
populations,  and  their  ever  strict  adherence  to  the  historic  and 
scriptural  traditions  of  the  office  as  a  ministry  of  mercy  and  not  a 
ministry  of  the  Gospel,  all  warrant  us  in  claiming  for  the  Mother- 
house  a  divine  sanction.  It  is  the  legitimate  and  logical  product 
of  the  Word.  It  need  no  more  trace  its  model  or  parentage  to 
the  Order  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  than  we  need  seek  the  origin 
of  our  theological  seminaries  in  the  College  of  the  Propaganda  at 
Rome. 


224  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

II.  It  must,  for  its  healthy  life  and  development,  be  in  direct 
connection  with  the  Church.  Theodore  Fliedner  soon  recognized 
this  necessary  connection,  and  a  few  years  after  its  founding, 
applied  for  parochial  rights  for  the  Motherhouse  congregation. 
It  is  to-day  a  parish  of  the  Prussian  Church.  At  no  time  during 
his  many  and  long  absences  did  he  fail  to  have  a  pastor  take  his 
place  as  the  spiritual  head,  as  the  Augsburg  Confession  was  the 
doctrinal  standpoint  of  the  community.  Indeed,  the  Kaiserswerth 
General  Conference,  recognizing  the  dual  character  of  tlie  Mo- 
therhouse as  a  congregation  of  believers  and  as  a  Christian  family 
of  women,  requires,  as  a  siiie  qua  non  of  admission  to  its  member- 
ship, that  the  applying  Motherhouse  must  have  both  a  Rector 
and  a  Directing  Sister.  The  pastor  thus  becomes  the  external 
bond  between  the  Motherhouse  and  the  Church.  He  is  subject 
to  its  discipline.  He  is  guided  by  its  teachings.  He  reports  to 
its  Synods,  and  he  seeks,  by  stimulating  a  deep  interest  within 
the  Sisterhood  for  the  Church's  history,  missions  and  literature^ 
to  make  the  connection  close  and  living.  In  fact,  the  great  ob- 
ject of  the  pastor  should  be  to  interest  every  sister  in  the  progress 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

This  connection  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the 
Church's  means  of  grace,  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments  are  re- 
lied upon  to  do  all  the  work  of  unifying,  controlling  and  sifting 
out  the  sisterhood.  The  inner  relation  in  wiiich  the  probationers 
stand  to  Christ,  before  tiiey  are  admitted  as  Deaconesses,  pre- 
supposes that  they  have  subordinated  their  wills  to  the  will  of 
God.  Now  the  supreme  lesson  of  the  Motherhouse  training  is: 
That  the  most  holy  is  the  mo^t  Christian.  That  it  is  not  wdmt 
she  has,  nor  even  what  she  does,  whicii  directly  exi)res«es  the 
worth  of  a  sister,  but  what  she  is.  This  must  always  be  the  cri- 
terion which  is  least  deceptive  :  "  By  this  shall  ail  men  know 
that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  love  one  another." 

And  that  Word  must  permeate  the  whole  house.  In  the  thou- 
sand worries  of  the  work,  the  discouragements,  temptations  and 
disappointments,  it  must  be  her  stay  and  refreshment.  The  pas- 
tor, with  a  deep  knowledge  of  human  nature,  must  apply  the 
Word  with  tact  and  tenderness.     It  was  to  a  woman  that  Christ 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  225 

once  said:  "The  water  that  I  shall  give  thee  shall  be  iu  thee  a 
well  of  water  springing  up  unto  eternal  life."  Here  is  the  secret 
of  the  strength,  and  cheerfulness,  and  quiet  peace  that  the  true 
Deaconess  distributes  as  she  goes  about  her  work  in  hospital, 
asylum,  prison  or  parish.  Ever  as  she  goeth  through  the  valley 
of  Baca  (weeping)  she  maketh  it  a  well,  and  the  gentle  rain  of 
God's  Word  filleth  the  poor,  dusty,  broken  pools  of  many  a 
wretched  life.  Yes,  the  pastor  is  and  must  be  the  master — for  he 
is  the  shepherd  of  the  flock,  the  ambassador  ivho  stands  for  the  King. 
III.  The  Deaconess  Motherhouse  should  be  not  only  in  doc- 
trine, but  in  spirit,  Lutheran.  If  the  reason  be  sought  why  the 
Motherhouse  did  not  for  years  flourish  outside  of  Lutheran 
countries,  we  find  it  not  in  the  character  of  the  Germanic  nations, 
but  iu  the  distinctive  spirit  of  Lutheranism  as  over  against  the 
Reformed  type  of  religion.  Prof.  Amiel  in  his  "Journal"  thus 
pictures  Calvinism  at  Geneva:  "Our  Church  ignores  the  wants 
of  the  soul  instead  of  divining  and  meeting  them.  She  shows 
very  little  compassionate  care  for  her  children,  very  little  wise 
consideration  for  the  more  delicate  griefs,  and  no  intuition  of  the 
deeper  mysteries  of  tenderness,  no  religious  suavity.  Under  a 
pretext  of  spirituality  we  are  always  checking  legitimate  aspira- 
tions. We  have  lost  the  mystical  sense.  And  what  is  religion 
without  mysticism  ?  A  rose  without  pei'fume ! "  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Lutheran  Church,  by  the  very  necessities  of  her  sacra- 
mental doctrines,  has  developed  a  churchly  symbolism  that  is 
ever  becoming  mox'e  rich  and  suggestive.  This  she  largely 
inherited  from  the  Latin  Church,  and  the  treasures  of  her  un- 
desecrated  old  churches  and  cathedrals,  the  priceless  gems  of 
prayer  and  praise  from  the  early  and  middle  ages  set  in  her  beau- 
tiful liturgies,  the  very  form  of  her  chancels  and  the  robes  of  her 
clergy,  all  mark  the  continuity  of  her  history  far  back  of  the  Re- 
formation. We  az'e  not  fearful  then  of  churchlincss  in  the  Mo- 
therhouse. Our  sisters  wear  their  simple  habit.  They  bear  the 
plain  silver  cross  upon  their  bosoms.  They  have  no  desire  to 
borrow  either  from  the  High  Church  sisterhoods  the  veils,  the 
girdles,  the  scapular  or  the  crucifix,  nor  to  seek  their  model  of 
dress,  demeanor  or  work  from  denominations  that  have  neither 
15 


226  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  liistoric  precedents  nor  scriptural  foundation  for  tlieir  peripa. 
tetic  evangelists.  The  Lutheran  Motherhouse,  reflecting  the  rich 
churchliness  that  ages  of  growth  have  gathered  about  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  can  be  made  tlie  Plouse  Beautiful,  where  not  only  the 
words  repentance  and  sanctlfication  are  often  on  the  lips,  but 
adoration  and  consolation  are  part  of  the  beauty  of  its  holiness. 

IV.  The  Slotherhouse  should  adapt  its  training  methods 
to  the  American  character  of  the  probationers.  "As  in  a 
Gothic  building  each  constituent  part  from  the  largest  window 
down  to  the  smallest  rosette  in  the  ornamental  carving  represents 
the  sj)irit  and  form  of  the  entire  structure,  so  each  member  of  the 
sisterhood  should  contain  in  herself  the  ruling  principles  and  me- 
thodizing habits  that  characterize  the  whole  body."  The  purpose 
is  to  have  each  one  do  her  work,  whether  at  the  Motherhouse  or 
on  the  most  distant  station  not  as  hers,  but  as  the  work  of  her 
beloved  Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ.  Now,  obviously,  the 
training  of  Deaconesses,  as  well  as  procuring  probationers,  will 
not  be  entirely  alike  in  Germany  and  the  United  States.  There 
there  is  a  homogeneous  population ;  here  a  medley  of  nationalities. 
There  a  certain  type  of  woman  exists,  created  by  uniform  envi- 
ronments and  similar  education.  The  standard  type  of  American 
woman  is  not  yet  evolved.  In  Germany  not  only  is  there  an 
innate  sense  of  the  duty  of  subordination  to  authority,  fostered 
by  the  religious  training  in  school  and  Church,  but  that  recogni- 
tion of  the  right  of  others  to  command  is  part  of  the  military 
discipline  of  the  nation.  "  The  powers  that  be "  both  in  the 
family  and  in  the  State  expect  and  require  instant  obedience. 
Here  parental  authority  is  often  unknown,  and  the  un.settled 
term  of  office  of  the  "  powers "  in  Church  and  State,  together 
with  the  insane  idea  that  every  American  is  born  a  sovereign, 
unsettles  or  destroys  subordination.  There  the  Church  doctrine 
is  accepted  without  question  by  pious  souls.  Here  the  woman  is 
trained  in  a  spirit  of  independence  of  human  authority  in  matters 
of  religious  concern,  and  whether  in  destructive  criticism  of  her 
pastor's  last  sermon  or  of  the  JMosaic  record,  she  claims  and  jea- 
lously guards  her  inherent  right  to  speak  her  mind. 

In  a  word,  the  intense  individuality  of  the  American  woman 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  227 

has  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  training  of  the  Motherhouse.  She 
is  willing  to  devote  herself  to  the  humblest  work,  to  sacrifice 
everytliing,  to  endure  hardships,  but  she  wants  to  work  and  suffer 
in  her  own  way.  She  is  pious  and  conscientious,  but  if  matters 
do  not  suit  her,  and  things  are  not  to  her  taste,  it  is  hard  for  her 
to  submit. 

Perliaps  I  have  shaded  the  lines  a  little,  but  the  picture  will 
be  recognized.  Such  characters,  with  force,  originality  and  re- 
sourcefulness, when  made  true  handmaidens  of  the  Lord,  will  be- 
come as  irresistible  a  power  for  the  Church  as  were  our  troops 
before  Santiago  for  their  country,  of  whom  a  foreign  attache  re- 
marked, "Every  one  of  them  would  make  an  officer."  But  will 
not  the  hai'd  and  fast  methods  of  the  German  probe-saal  only  ir- 
ritate and  discourage  such  probationers?  Can  they  be  Avon  to 
the  work  by  the  enforcement  of  petty  rules  and  exacting  customs 
that  may  have  been  successful  in  entirely  different  environments 
and  with  other  material,  but  which  must  ever  be  foreign  to 
American  girls?  The  principles  of  the  female  diaconate  must  be 
and  remain  the  same  the  world  over,  for  they  are  scriptural,  but 
their  application  may  be  modified  and  adapted  to  varying  cir- 
cumstances and  places  without  destroying  in  the  least  the  Mo- 
therhouse idea. 

REMARKS. 

Dr.  Spaeth  said : — In  earlier  days  there  was  great  antagonism  to 
the  deaconess  movement,  not  only  in  the  secular  press,  but  also  in  the 
Lutheran  church  papers.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  paper  edited 
by  Dr.  Benj.  Kurtz.  It  is  a  great  cause  for  congratulation  that  the 
General  Synod  has  now  taken  up  this  work.  There  is  a  difference  in 
the  conditions  existing  in  Germany  and  America.  In  Germany  home 
and  foreign  missions,  for  example,  are  supported  by  private  individ- 
uals. Here  the  church  organization  has  taken  charge.  There  should 
also  be  a  Board  for  deaconess  work.  But  be  careful  not  to  forget  that 
after  all  this  work  must  be  in  the  sphere  of  mercy.  The  work  is  not 
spiritual  in  the  sense  of  saving  souls  by  teaching,  but  to  relieve  the 
minister  in  the  pastoral  work.  However  there  can  be  organic  connec- 
tion with  the  Church  without  the  control  ofi  a  Board,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Philadelphia  Motherhouse. 

Eev.  FiiANK  P.  Manhart,  pastor  of  the  Motherhouse  in  Baltimore, 


228  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

said :— It  may  be  well  to  look  hurriedly  at  the  possibilities  for  the 
development  of  deaconess  work  which  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Amer- 
ica presents.  Many  parts  of  our  Church  are  known  to  be  in  active 
sympathy  with  deaconess  work,  and  it  may  be  hoped  that  all  soon 
will  be. 

In  a  very  general  way  deaconess  work  is  classified  as : — Nursing, 
teaching  and  parish. 

As  nurses,  deaconesses  may  work  in  hospitals  and  in  institutions  of 
various  types.  They  also  fiiid  much  to  do  in  the  way  of  private  nurs- 
ing in  homes.  Our  Church  now  has  in  the  United  States  18  hospitals, 
and  18  homes  for  the  aged  and  asylums,  and  44  orphanages.  Besides, 
some  deaconess  work  is  done  in  hospitals  that  are  not  strictly  under 
church  control.  A  moderate  estimate  of  possible  demands  for  nursing 
sisters  working  with  other  deaconesses  in  stations,  in  private  nursing 
and  in  institutions  of  various  types,  would  be  that  2,000  nursing  dea- 
conesses could  find  fields  of  labor  within  our  Church. 

As  teachers,  deaconesses  should  be  found  in  all  of  our  44  orphan- 
ages. There  is  also  for  them  a  great  field  of  usefulness  in  schools  for 
little  children,  or  in  the  Christian  kindergarten.  The  kindergarten  is 
sometimes  used  as  an  un-Christian  or  even  an  anti-Christian  school. 
The  Christian  kindergarten  uses  some  kindergarten  materials  and 
methods,  but  dominates  all  with  Christian  truth.  The  child  is  not 
simply  like  a  plant  in  its  beginnings  needing  only  a  good  environment 
to  reach  perfection.  It  needs  regeneration.  The  Christian  child  is 
dedicated  to  Christ  in  baptism.  This,  then,  is  a  basis  for  Christian 
nurture.  The  Christian  kindergarten  takes  children  from  tlie  ages  of 
three  to  seven,  and  by  rightly  teaching  such  Bible  stories,  Christian 
hymns,  prayers  and  Christian  truths  as  are  specially  adapted  to  their 
state  develops  them,  in  their  most  important  pedagogical  period,  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  Besides,  in  many  parishes  and 
with  other  sisters  in  stations,  many  other  teaching  deaconesses  could 
be  found  eminently  useful.  Certainly  the  possibilities  are  that  1,000 
deaconesses  might  thus  be  employed. 

As  workers  in  parishes,  deaconesses  are  prepared  to  serve  as  aids  to 
the  pastors  in  all  the  varied  ways  that  it  is  fitting  for  a  Christian 
woman,  who  is  educated,  trained  and  consecrated  by  the  Church,  to 
work.  The  parish  wcjrk  is  the  crown  of  the  female  diaconate.  Here 
is  her  widest  field.  Here  the  most  varied  talent  and  the  fullest  culture 
and  training  find  ample  room  for  exercise. 

Surely  in  individual  parishes  and  in  a  completely  organized  system 
of  stations,  covering  city,  village  and  country  parishes,  our  Church 
could  well  use  3,000  deaconesses. 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  229 

The  uumber  of  deaconesses  of  the  Kaiserswerth  type  at  work  in  the 
world  exceeds  15,000.  Exclusive  of  America,  there  are  then  15,000 
deaconesses  working  among  50,000,000  of  Lutherans.  In  America 
there  are  a  few  more  than  200  working  among  a  Lutheran  population 
of  7,000,000.  As  everywhere  in  Europe  the  demand  for  deaconesses  is 
far  beyond  the  supply  and  every  Motherhouse  is  anxiously  desiring 
more,  six  thousand  seem  a  moderate  estimate  of  the  number  of  dea- 
conesses who  could  be  wisely  used  by  the  Lutheran  Church  in  An^er- 
ica,  having  in  mind  only  its  present  numbers,  life  and  work. 

Dr.  Dunbar  said : — Probably  the  necessity  of  bein<j:  brief  has  com- 
pelled me  to  be  so  concise  that  in  some  of  my  statements  I  have 
failed  to  be  as  clear  as  I  desired.  This  is  especially  true  with  refer- 
ence to  two  points.  In  saying  that  the  Motherhouse  should  be  under 
the  direct  control  of  the  Church  I  did  not  intend  to  reflect  on  the 
Drexel  Home.  We,  in  our  own  work,  are  too  greatly  indebted  to  this 
noble  institution  to  have  anything  but  the  kindliest  feeling  for  it  and 
the  most  profound  regard  for  its  work.  Again  in  speaking  of  the  dea- 
coness as  a  minister  of  the  Church,  I  may  not  have  made  my  meaning 
sufficiently  clear,  by  failing  to  emphasize  the  distinction  between  the 
ministry  of  the  word  and  sacraments  and  a  ministry  of  mercy.  I 
regard  the  deaconess  as  a  minister  of  the  Church,  but  only  in  her 
appointed  office  and  sphere,  and  to  perform  the  service  of  a  deaconess. 

Dr.  V.  L.  Conrad  said : — Allow  me  to  call  attention  to  the  sugges- 
tion of  Dr.  Dunbar  on  the  enlargement  of  our  deaconess  work.  I  pre- 
sume all  who  are  here  present  have  read  the  recent  discourse  of  Dr. 
Da  Costa,  of  New  York,  in  which  he  arraigns  Protestantism  as  a  fail- 
ure and  flings  into  the  faces  of  us  Protestants  the  terrible  fact,  that  out 
of  70,000,000  of  our  population,  only  20,000,000  attend  tlie  churches, 
and  50,000,000  are  outside  and  do  not  attend  them. 

Now  we  know  that  Sunday  bicycles  and  newspapers,  Sunday  foot- 
ball and  theatres,  Sunday  races  and  other  demoralizing  sports  keep 
thousands  and  thousands  out  of  the  churches  on  Sunday  who  would 
otherwise  attend,  and  human  depravity  in  general  does  the  rest. 

Now  in  order  to  bring  these  50,000,000  of  outsiders  into  the 
churches,  we  need  a  reinforcement  of  lay  gospel-workers,  who  are 
competent  to  impart  religious  instruction  and  are  adapted  for  the 
work  of  seeking  these  outside  multitudes  iadividuallu ,  in  their 
homes  and  elsewhere,  and  like  deaconesses  win  their  confidence,  and 
with  the  offices  of  kindness  and  the  benevolent  ministrations  of  relig- 
ion, induce  them  to  attend  the  churches  and  thus  bring  thciu  under 
the  influence  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 


230  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

AVe  need  such  lay  gospel-workers  to  supplement  the  work  of  the 
pastors  in  all  our  large  congregations,  in  our  cities  especially,  as  a  part 
of  the  regular  working  force  of  the  Church.  Without  such  lay  work- 
ers, the  irreligious  masses  will  not  be  brought  into  the  churches,  their 
numbers  will  continue  to  increase,  and  the  churches  will  continue  to 
fall  behind. 

Eev.  Passavant  said  that  the  recent  disclosures  in  a  certain  publi- 
cation concerning  sisterhoods  in  the  Church  of  England  reminded  him 
of  a  story  told  of  Dr.  Krauth,  when  one  night  alter  the  family  retired 
they  heard  a  great  uproar  and  found  him  calling  out,  "  There's  a  man 
in  the  house."  Upon  investigation  it  was  learned  that  it  was  now 
after  midnight  and  he  was  twenty-one  years  old.  Every  motherhouse 
should  have  a  "  man  in  the  house."  His  presence  as  the  pastor  exerts 
a  healthy  evangelical  influence. 

F.  A.  Kahler  said : — In  reference  to  the  remark  that  a  priest  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  had  flung  at  Protestantism  "  the  fact 
of  its  failure  "  I  would  beg  to  suggest  that  we  are  perfectly  willing  to 
meet  facts,  but  must  respectfully  insist  that  they  shall  not  be  taken 
from  the  devil's  factory  of  fiction.  We  have  even  great  happiness  in 
standing  by  the  comparison  which  the  Lord  of  nations  has  in  these 
last  days,  in  solemn  judgment,  made  between  Protestant  and  Roman 
Catholic.  There  are  countries  where  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
had  the  inheritance  of  Empire  and  the  traditions  of  the  Church 
untouched  by  the  Reformation,  such  as  Italy,  Spain,  South  America, 
Mexico,  Cuba  and  the  Philippines.  Compare  with  them  England, 
Gennany,  Scandinavia  and  the  United  States,  and  where  has  God  set 
the  seal  of  His  approval?  Arguing  from  "  the  fact  that  Protestantism 
is  a  failure  "  recalls  that  other  priestly  argument :  "  Say  we  not  well, 
thou  art  a  Samaritan  and  hast  a  devil  ?  " 


LUTHERAN  ESTIMATE  OF  ORDINATION. 

BY   REV.    J.    A.    W.    HAAS. 

Ordinjition  is  a  segment  of  the  larger  doctrine  of  the  ministry. 
This  determines  ordination  and  is  in  turn  deterniiued  by  it. 
Therefore  the  value  of  ordination  has  been  differently  estimated, 
according  as  the  ministry  has  Iteen  conceived  of,  either  as  the 
transferred  exercise  of  the  general  priesthood  of  individual  be- 
lievers or  as  a  service  divinely  given  to  the  whole  Church  with  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.         .     231 

mear.s  of  grace  for  their  administration,  or  as  an  office  of  divine 
institution  not  merely  for  tlie  administration  of  the  means  of 
grace,  but  also  for  church  government.  The  first  conception  has 
been  developed  in  antithesis  to  Rome,  and  in  it  Lutherans  have 
agreed  with  the  Reformed.  But  in  its  baldness  and  lack  of  con- 
nection with  the  means  of  grace,  it  becomes  essentially  Reformed, 
makes  the  ministry  an  organ  growing  out  of  the  congregation, 
which  ill  befits  the  divine  origin  of  the  ministry,  and  ought  con- 
sistently allow  only  sacrificial  service.  In  it  the  main  accent  is 
placed  on  the  vocation,  of  which  ordination  is  the  attestation. 
Apparently  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  Augsburg  Confession 
(Article  XIV),  where  the  ministry  is  allowed  no  one,  "except 
he  be  rightly  called."  But  the  call  is  there  used  in  a  wider 
sense  to  include  ordination,  which  is  used  interchangeably  with 
call  by  Luther  and  Melanchthon  before  1535.  (Erl.  Ed.  31, 
348;  C.  R.  Ill,  236;  XXI,  103.)  The  adherents  of  the  doc- 
trine of  transference  should  have  the  ordination  performed,  as 
ordered  in  the  18th  Article  of  the  second  Helvetic  Confession, 
namely,  by  the  lay-elders  of  the  congregation,  for  whose  Lutheran 
legitimacy  Walther  contended.  This  would  be  the  attestation  of 
the  spiritual  priests  properly  and  directly,  though  it  is  nowhere 
the  practice  of  the  Lutheran  Church  and  never  has  been.  Its 
constant  usage  of  ordination  by  the  ministry  alone  increases  the 
incongruity  of  transference  with  the  central  place  of  the  means 
of  grace  in  the  Lutheran  system,  particularly  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  which  is  so  closely  bound  up  with  that  of  the 
ministry. 

The  position  diametrically  opposite,  which  makes  the  congre- 
gation the  object  of  the  oflfice,  and  the  ministry  the  divine  self- 
perpetuating  office  of  shepherd,  is  in  antithesis  to  Reformed  con- 
ceptions. It  ought  consistently,  as  Vilmar,  give  ordination  a 
high  sacramental  character.  But  wdiether  it  does  so  or  not,  it 
tends  to  narrow  down  ordination  to  laying  on  of  hands,  and  un- 
wittingly creates  an  order  (ordo).  It  has  thus  become  Roman, 
must  needs  emphasize  a  succession  not  merely  spiritual,  and  is 
really  inconsistent  with  the  Lutheran  practice  of  election  by  the 
Church. 


232  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

The  mediate  position  emphasizes  tlie  separateuess  of  the  office 
and  its  connection  Avith  the  means  of  grace  over  against  the  Re- 
formed, as  well  as  its  purely  administrative  character  and  its 
perpetuation  by  the  election  of  the  whole  Church  in  all  its  mem- 
))er3  over  against  Rome.  This  accords  most  fully  with  the 
Smalcald  Articles  (Power  and  Primacy  of  the  Pope,  II,  66  ff), 
which  properly  understood  claim  ordination  as  the  prerogative  of 
the  whole  Church.  "  Where  there  is  therefore  a  true  Church, 
the  right  to  elect  and  ordain  ministers  necessarily  exists."  And 
the  words  of  Peter,  "  ye  are  the  royal  priesthood,"  are  applied 
thus:  "  These  words  pertain  to  the  true  Church,  which  since  it 
alone  has  the  priesthood  has  the  right  to  elect  and  ordain  minis- 
ters." Their  office  as  divine  is  not  injured  by  the  democracy  of 
an  atomistic  spiritual  priesthood,  nor  by  the  aristocracy  of  a  self- 
generating  priestly  order.  Ordination  will  then  be  the  public 
approval  of  the  call  by  the  Church,  but  it  will  also  include  the 
separation  for  the  ministry,  with  invocation  of  blessing  and  con- 
secration under  divine  approval.  These  features  form  a  sufficient 
reason  Avhy  ordination  is  not  repeated,  without  gravitating  in  the 
least  to  any  "  character  indelibilis,"  or  leaving  it  actually  unex- 
l^lained  and  inconsistent,  as  does  the  theory  of  transference. 

The  scriptural  basis  of  ordination  cannot  be  derived  from  any 
institution  or  act  of  Christ.  His  breathing  upon  the  Apostles 
(John  20 :  22)  was  a  special  transmission  of  His  Spirit  and  an 
actual  proof  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  in  Him  to  fit  the  Apostles 
for  their  special  foundation-work.  As  the  ministry  is  no  continu- 
ation of  the  Apostolate,  so  this  afflation  has  no  bearing  on  the  rite 
of  ordination.  This  is  simply  an  Apostolic  institution,  and  was 
used  as  well  for  the  Seven  (Acts  6  :  5),  as  for  Barnal)a3  and  Saul 
(Acts  13  :  8),  when  separated  for  their  call,  and  also  for  Timo- 
thy (1  Tim.  4:  14;  2  Tim.  1:  6).  In  the  same  manner  Paul 
and  Barnabas  appointed  elders  upon  the  vote  of  the  Church. 
(Acts  14:  23).  Here,  as  in  Acts  13:  3,  fasting  marked  the  im- 
portance and  solemnity  of  the  occasion.  It  prepared  for  prayer 
(Cf.  Mark  9  :  29),  but  was  no  integral  part  of  the  act.  The  ac- 
companying rite  was  the  laying  on  of  hands  with  i^rayer.  Lay- 
ing on  of  hands  was  an  Old  Testament  and  general  religious  form 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  233 

to  express  the  imposition,  impartution  auJ  communicatiou  of 
somethini?,  e.g.,  sin  and  traasgression  (Ex.29:  14;  Lev.  4:  4; 
16:  21;  Num.  8:  12),  guilt  (Lev.  24:  14),  thanksgiving  (Lev. 
3:  2),  blessing  (Gen.  48:  14),  life  (in  burnt-offerings,  Ex.  29: 
15;  Lev.  1:4;  Num.  8:  12),  office  (Deut.  84:  9).  Christ 
uses  it  at  times  (Mark  6:  5;  8:  23;  10:  16;  Luke  4:  40;  13: 
13),  but  not  often,  nor  always  when  requested  (Mark  5:  23), 
perhaps  because  it  was  sometimes  conceived  of  magically,  and 
not  as  by  the  mothers  (Matt.  19:  13)  combined  with  prayer. 
Blessing,  healing,  life,  were  expected  from  Christ  by  laying  on  of 
hands.  The  value  was  that  of  Christ's  person,  and  the  action 
symbolized  a  real  gift  imparted  by  the  word.  What  Christ  did, 
God  did.  His  power  in  Christ  was  presupposed  when  Christ 
gave  the  laying  on  of  hands  for  healing  to  His  disciples  (Mark 
16:  18).  Paul  thus  uses  it  (Acts  28:  8),  as  did  also  Ana- 
nias upon  special  divine  commission  (Acts  9:  12,  17).  The 
Apostles  can  also  give  charismata  with  it  (Acts  8:  17;  19:  6). 
Thus  the  charisma  of  Timothy  given  by  prophecy  with  (meta) 
laying  on  of  hands,  as  the  accompanying  rite,  is  also  spoken  of  as 
imparted  through  (dia)  laying  on  of  hands  (1  Tim.  4:  14;  2 
Tim.  1 :  6).  This  agrees  with  Christ's  mode,  the  word  and  sym- 
bol are  together.  It  is  this  reality  of  the  divine  gift  through  the 
word  which  justifies  the  remark  of  the  Apology:  "But  if  ordi- 
nation be  applied  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word,  we  are  not  unwil- 
ling to  call  ordination  a  sacrament.  For  tlie  ministry  has  God's 
command  and  glorious  promise  (Rom.  1  :  16):  'The  Gospel  is 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth.' 
Likewise  (Is.  55 :  11) :  'So  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out 
of  my  mouth  ;  it  shall  not  retui-n  unto  me  void,  but  it  shall  ac- 
complish that  which  I  please.'  If  ordination  be  understood  in 
this  way,  neither  will  we  refuse  to  call  the  imposition  of  hands  a 
sacrament"  (Art.  XIII,  11).  Chemnitz  (Examen  Decret.  Cone. 
Trid.  Ill,  3)  approves  of  this,  and  explains  that  sacrament  is 
here  used  in  a  wide  sense.  He  is  thus  not  in  conflict  with  Ger- 
hard (Loci,  XII,  159),  who  thinks  of  the  sacraments  in  the  pro- 
per and  limited  sense,  when  he  says  of  the  laying  on  of  hands, 
"not  as  though  it  were  any  sacramental  symbol  instituted  by 


234  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Clirist."  Frank  (Sys.  der  Chrl.  Wabrh.  II,  p.  308)  is  in  line 
with  Chemnitz  when  he  holds  that  a  real  blessing  is  given  in  the 
laying  on  of  bauds.  "  But  not  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
proper  sacraments  is  the  impartatiou  of  the  gift  bound  to  the  out- 
ward act.  He,  who  rightly  called,  and  belonging  to  the  gifts 
which  the  exalted  Christ  })romised  His  Church  (Eph.  4:  8),  ex- 
tends his  hands  in  prayer  to  Him,  who  has  called  him,  will  not 
remain  unblessed  if  perchance  the  laying  on  of  hands  would  not 
be  given  him  when  entering  into  office.  ]\Iany  of  these  acts,  as 
this  appears  most  clearly  in  absolution  with  laying  on  of  hands, 
are  only  special  comljinations  and  applications  of  the  effect, 
which  takes  place  gcnenilly  through  the  divine  word,  in  a  single 
significant  action  instituted  for  this  purpose.  From  this  effec- 
tiveness of  such  actions  they  can  be  better  conceived  of."  This 
realism  of  a  divine  gift  was  apparently  not  held  by  Luther. 
From  his  treatise  to  the  Christian  nobility  (1520)  and  his  "Baby- 
lonian Captivity"  (1520),  through  the  tractate  "  Das  eine  chrl. 
Vcrsamml.  od.  Gemeinde  Recht  u.  Macht  babe,  alle  Lehre  zu 
urtheilen  u.  Lehrer  zu  berufen  "  and  his  "  De  instituendis  rainis- 
tris  ecclesiaj,"  etc.,  sent  to  the  senate  of  Prague  (both  1523),  to 
the  polemic  "Von  der  Winkelmesse  u.  Pfafilenweihe "  (1533), 
and  often  elsewhere,  he  declares  the  right  of  all  believers  to  the 
office  because  of  the  spiritual  priesthood  (Erl.  Ed.  40,  170  ff  ;  47: 
161),  and  sees  the  consecration  (Weiho)  in  the  call.  "Ordo  est 
ministerium  et  vocatioministrorumecclesine."  Ordination  because 
of  the  ])rayer  and  the  promise  (Mt.  18  :  19)  is  efi:ective,  but  it  is 
only  like  a  notary's  seal  or  the  confirmation  of  marriage  by  a 
pastor.  (Kostlin,  Luther's  Theol.  2,539).  Nevertheless  Luther 
emphasizes  the  divine  institution  and  call  (Erl.  Ed.  31  :  219; 
40:  171).  In  part  this  counterbalances  his  combative  position 
against  the  hierarchy,  in  which  as  well  the  ministry  as  ordination 
received  a  low  value  in  the  transference  theory.  But  the  truer 
constructive  thought  of  Luther  api)ear8  most  fully  in  his  Ordi- 
nations forraular,  which  is  the  basis  of  most  later  orders.  (Erl.  Ed. 
G4 :  290  it).  It  begins  with  the  invocation  to  the  Ploly  Spirit 
and  a  collect.  Then  the  word  of  promise  (1  Tim.  3 :  Iff.;  Acts 
20:  28  ff.),  which  is  sacramental,  is  read,  followed   by  a  short 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  235 

statomeiit  of  tlie  duties  of  the  ofiice,  euding  with  the  question  to 
the  candidate  and  his  reply  of  acceptance.  Tliereupon  the  sacri- 
ficial prayer,  -which  seeks  sacramental  blessing,  is  recited  with 
laying  on  of  hands.  The  office  is  then  given,  and  the  ordiiiand 
dismis.sed  with  the  benediction  :  Benedicat  vobis  Dominus,  ut 
faciatis  fructum  multuiu."  Some  orders  as  that  of  Liineburg 
(1598),  Calenberg,  Wittenberg  (1565),  Osnabriick,  simply  adopt 
this  form.  The  orders  of  Mecklenburg,  Pomerania  (1563), 
Hoya,  Hildesheim  change  it  somewhat.  The  Pomeranian  Agenda 
(1569),  the  Liineburg  (1643),  and  the  Ostfrisian  K.  O.  unfold 
more  fully  some  features  indicated  in  Luther's  form,  e.  g.,  the 
separation  for  the  ministry,  the  laying  of  God's  Word  upon  him, 
etc.     (See  Kliefoth,  Liturg.  Abhandl.  I,  p.  462  ff.). 

Melanchthon  at  first,  in  opposition  to  Rome,  holds  it  possible  to 
enter  the  ministry  without  ordination  (C.  R.  Ill,  184).  But 
later  he  accepts  its  necessity  as  a  public  confirmation  of  the  call 
(C.  R.  XXVIII,  524),  and,  like  Luther,  will  allow  it  to  the  epis- 
copate if  this  be  evangelical  (C.  R.  V.,  585,  596).  But  it  is  not 
to  lie  placed  with  the  sacraments  instituted  by  Christ  (C  R.  IV., 
422).  In  the  Loci  (3d  stage)  Melanchthon,  in  consonance  with 
his  position  in  the  Apology,  gives  ordination  a  sacramental  im- 
port, and  says :  "  Christ  the  Priest  places  his  hands  on  them  (the 
ordinands),  i.  e.,  chooses  them  by  the  voice  of  the  Church,  blesses 
them  and  anoints  them  with  His  gifts,  as  it  is  written.  He  as- 
cended, gave  gifts  to  men.  Prophets,  Apostles,  Pastors,  Doctors, 
whom  he  adorns  with  the  light  of  doctrine  and  other  gifts."  (C. 
R.  XXI,  852  )  (Cf  also  C.  R.  XXI  [,  52,  the  German  transla- 
tion of  the  Loci.) 

It  has  often  been  claimed  that  the  controversy  of  Frederus 
disproves  such  high  estimate  of  ordination,  but  this  is  rather  a 
misapplication  of  its  result.  The  opposition  of  Frederus  to  or- 
dination, seconded  by  ^Epinus,  was  really  brought  about  by  his 
own  peculiar  position,  in  which  his  ordination  was  several  times 
prevented  by  political  complications.  Stralsund  would  not  have 
him  ordained  by  Knipstroh,  the  Superintendent  of  Pomerania, 
because  the  Pomeranian  Duke  might  deduce  therefrom  a  claim 
of  Church  authority.     Again  when   Frederus  was  called  as  Su- 


236  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

periutentlcut  to  Riigen  by  the  Duke  of  Pomerania,  he  was  not 
ordaiued  because  the  Duke  feared  to  so  far  take  away  tlie  rights 
of  the  Danish  Bishop  of  Roeskilde,  Pulladius.  Knipstroh  sim- 
ply introduced  or  installed  Frederus.  Finally  Frederus  defended 
his  non-ordination,  and  made  necessity  a  law,  even  though  he  was 
ordained  by  Palladius  (loo I)  after  deposition  fi-om  his  superin- 
teudency  and  his  professorship  in  Greifswald  for  his  obstinate 
rejection  of  ordination.  Knipstroh,  whose  position  the  Greifs- 
wald Synod  (1556)  and  the  Wittenberg  Faculty  sanctioned,  re- 
jected Frederus'  restriction  of  ordination  to  laying  on  of  hands, 
claimed  prayer  and  other  features  as  its  content,  and  held  this 
whole  ordination  to  be  confirmed  as  God's  order.  It  was  "  ordi- 
natio  apostolica,"  "  not  necessary  for  salvation,  but  only  for  the 
preservation  of  Christian  teachers  and  the  office  of  the  Church." 

Chemnitz  in  his  Loci  (De  Ecclesia),  but  most  fully  in  the 
Examen.  Deer.  Cone.  Trid.  (Ill,  2)  adds  to  public  approba- 
tion as  parts  of  ordination:  (I)  the  admonition  to  devote 
oneself  to  the  ministry  (se  destinari,  addici,  et  quasi  devoveri 
ad  ministerium  et  cultum  D^i)  ;  (II)  the  public  and  solemn 
protestation  of  the  Church  before  God,  that  in  election  and  call 
the  form  and  rule,  prescribed  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  kept ; 
(III)  the  approbation  of  God  (ut  illo  visibili  ritu  significato 
Deum  approbare  vocationem,  quie  fit  voce  ecclesiic) ;  (IV)  the 
offering  and  presenting  of  the  candidate  to  God,  that  He  may 
bless  him  and  bestow  upon  him  grace  (quia  persona  ilia,  (piasi 
offeretur  Deo,  ut  sisteretur  in  conspectum  ipsius,  additis  supplica- 
tionibus,  ut  Deum  gratiam  et  benedictionem  suam,  illi  largiri 
dignaretur). 

Gerhard  (Loci,  XII,  159)  uses  the  very  order  and  repeats  the 
very  words  of  Chemnitz  ;  and  Hollaz  (Examen.,  1339)  combines 
these  elements  into  one  definition. 

But  John  iNIatthesius  speaks  most  fully  and  beautifully  in  his 
sermons  on  Christ  (1579,  fol.  Ill,  quoted  in  Kliefoth,  Liturg. 
Abhandl.  I.,  p.  414):  "With  such  act  and  prayer  of  the 
churches  the  Son  of  God  has  always  been  present  and  still  is,  for 
He  sends  His  laborers  into  His  vineyard,  and  is  therefore  as- 
cended into   heaven,  that  He  miglit  give  gifts,  and  order  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  237 

churches,  although  He  does  so  now  mediately  through  the  elders 
and  appointed  Superintendents.  And  as  He  has  anointed  His 
prophets  and  apostles  visibly  with  the  balsam  of  His  Spirit,  and 
invested  them  with  glory  and  power  from  on  high,  thus  He  is 
always  effective  in  this  order  and  power  of  keys,  in  the  holy  or- 
dination. For  St.  Paul  clearly  testifies,  1  Tim.  4:  14;  2  Tim. 
1 :  6,  that  Timothy  had  received  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  his  or- 
dination, and  asks  him  to  give  heed  to  it,  awaken  it  with  prayer, 
study,  work,  for  God  had  given  him  (Paul)  and  Timothy  the 
spirit  of  power,  love  and  reproof." 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  ordination,  which  follows  the  election, 
call  and  examination,  and  is  followed  by  installation,  ought,  in 
the  Lutheran  system,  be  not  only  the  attestation  and  confirmation 
of  the  call  by  the  whole  Church,  but  also  the  consecration  by  the 
divine  word  and  prayer,  which  consecration  consists  in  the  sepa- 
ration  from  other  duties,  and  the  ^jtti^oif/  of  the  rcord  of  promise 
upon  the  ordiuand,  to  whom,  in  the  sight  and  presence  of  God, 
the  seal  of  divine  approbation,  blessing,  and  the  Hohj  Sjyirit  are 
given  for  the  office  of  administering  the  Avord  and  the  sacra- 
ments, commitiecl  to  him  by  the  voice  of  the  Church. 


LUTHERAN   ESTIMATE  OF  ORDINATION. 

BY   PRES.    J.    R.    DIMM,    D.D. 

According  to  the  Augsburg  Confession,  Art.  7,  let  there  be : 

1.  "A  congregation  of  believers  among  whom  the  gospel  is 
preached  in  purity,  and  the  holy  sacraments  are  administered 
according  to  the  gospel." 

2.  Let  there  be  the  ivant  of  a  presbyter,  an  elder,  a  bishop  or 
a  minister — for  these  terms  are  scripturally  synonymous — and 
we  have  the  conditions  demanding  the  call  and  ordination.  In 
the  14th  article  of  the  Confession  we  have  the  following  lan- 
guage :  "  Concerning  church  government  it  is  taught  that  no  one 
should  teach  or  preach  publicly  in  the  Church,  or  administer  the 
sacraments  without  a  regular  call."  Now  it  is  known  to  the  stu- 
dent of  the  Confession  that  the  Reformers  included  in  the  terms 
— "regular  call"  (rite  vocatus) — the  whole  process  of  transfer 


238  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE, 

from  the  common  walks  of  life  to  the  full  exercise  of  the  miuis- 
terial  office.     We  are,  therefore,  led  to  ask : 

I.  What  Constitutes  the  Regular  Call — ritevocatus?  This  en- 
tire transfer  is  divided  into  three  successive  steps  of  advancement. 

1.  The  internal  call,  which,  if  genuine,  is  immediately  from 
God.  This  needs  to  be  carefully  examined  and  fully  guarded  ; 
for  it  may  be  merely  a  subjective  impression  resulting  in  a 
preference,  over  other  occupations,  for  entering  the  ministry.  If 
genuine,  it  is  the  comnmnication  of  God's  will  to  the  individual 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  a  deep  conviction  and  a  heartfelt 
sense  of  obligation  to  preach  the  gospel  for  the  salvation  of  men. 
It  attaches  to  certain  individuals  and  continues,  if  not  consum- 
mated, for  years.  It  is  that  which  Paul,  after  his  enlightenment, 
felt  when  be  said — "  Woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gosj^el." 

Aside  from  this  internal  immediate  call  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
conscientiously  felt  by  the  individual,  all  the  other  steps  in  the 
process  may  be  originated  by  men.  Without  this  call  in  its 
genuine  form,  the  candidate  lacks  the  true  spiritual  animus,  and 
his  entrance  Avill  result  only  in  producing  a  mercenary  ministry, 
entering  the  office  and  rank  for  personal  gain.  There  may  be  a 
modest  person  of  excellent  talent,  who,  receiving  the  internal 
call,  smothers  it  up  within  his  own  bosom.  Such  a  one  may  feel 
too  timid  to  make  it  known  lest  he  be  derided  by  his  neighbors 
for  his  pretensions.  On  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  others 
who  are  evidently  lacking  the  necessary  intellectual  qualifica- 
tions, but  who  imngine  they  have  the  inward  call,  and  announce 
themselves  as  candidates.  Hence  there  is  a  necessity  for  another 
agency  in  the  process — (1)  to  encourage  the  timid  who  arc 
divinely  called,  and  (2)  to  restrain  the  pretentious  who  are  self- 
deceived.     That  is — 

2.  The  External  and  Mediate  Call.  Now  whilst  every  call 
that  is  genuine  is  primarily  from  Christ,  the  mediate  is  adminis- 
tered by  the  Church,  i.  e.,  the  whole  body  of  believing  Christians. 
It  consists  in  her  recognition  of  the  validity  of  the  internal  call, 
and  the  encouragement  and  support  given  to  the  candidate  in  his 
l)reparation  for  the  ministry. 

He  is  now  put  upun  a  coarse  of  trial  in  the  process  of  his  edu- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  i>39 

cation  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church.  During  the  years  of 
his  development  he  will  disclose  his  character — of  what  sort  it  is 
— and  prove  his  talents  or  the  want  of  them.  He  is  now  under 
the  supervision  and  observation  of  the  whole  Church,  in  the  per- 
sons of  the  professors,  the  pastors  and  the  laity,  during  a  series  of 
years.  If  all  this  proves  satisfactory  to  the  teachers,  preachers 
and  laity,  the  candidate  receives  the  approval  of  the  Cliurch, 
and  by  rite  of  some  synodical  body  he  is  admitted  to  the  next 
step  in  his  ministerial  progress.  This  constitutes  the  external, 
the  mediate  call — the  call  of  the  Master  through  the  Church — to 
enter  the  holy  ministry.  Here  the  united  judgment  of  the  pious 
laity  may  correct  any  mistake  previously  made.  If  it  be  doubted 
that  the  Church  has  the  right,  by  divijie  authority,  to  make  such 
call,  we  may  answer  in  the  affirmative  and  found  the  claim  on 
two  scriptural  considerations. 

The  first  one  is,  that  to  the  Church  was  given  the  jaower  of  the 
keys — Potestas  Clavium.  It  was  done  in  the  words  in  Matt.  16  : 
19,  "  And  I  will  give  unto  thee  tlie  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound 
in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven."  Also,  John  20:  23,  "  Whosesoever  sing  ye 
remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them,  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain, 
they  are  retained."  Now,  as  there  is  much  mystery  in  regard  to 
what  is  meant  by  the  power  of  the  keys,  we  are  glad  to  have  a 
definition  of  the  same,  so  far  as  human  testimony  goes,  in  the 
28th  Article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  Here  the  Confessors, 
in  speaking  of  the  power  of  the  clergy,  say :  "  The  power  of  the 
keys  or  of  the  bishops,  according  to  the  Gospel,  is  a  power  and 
commission  from  God  to  preach  the  Gospel,  to  remit  and  retain 
sins,  and  to  attend  to  the  administration  of  the  sacraments ;  for 
Christ  sent  forth  the  Apostles  with  the  command :  As  my  Father 
hath  sent  me  even  so  send  I  you  ;  receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost. 
"Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and 
whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.  This  power  of  the 
keys,  or  of  the  Bishops,  is  to  be  exercised  and  carried  into  eflect 
alone  by  the  doctrine  and  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  by 
the  administration  of  the  sacraments  to  many  or  few  persons 


240  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

according  to  tlie  call.  For  by  this  means  are  conferred  not  tem- 
poral, but  eternal  blessings  and  treasures,  as  eternal  righteous- 
ness, the  Holy  Spirit,  and  eternal  life.  These  blessings  cannot 
be  obtained  otherwise  than  by  the  office  of  the  ministry  and  by 
the  administration  of  the  holy  sacraments." 

In  the  appendix  to  the  Smalcald  Articles  we  find  this  lan- 
guage: "  This,  moreover,  must  be  confessed,  that  the  keys  belong 
and  were  given,  not  to  one  person  only,  but  to  the  whole  Church, 
as  it  can  be  suflSciently  proved  by  clear  and  incontestable  rea- 
sons." For  precisely  as  the  promise  of  the  Gospel  pertains,  with- 
out limit,  to  tlie  whole  Church,  so  the  keys  pertain  to  the  whole 
Church,  without  limitation,  since  the  keys  are  nothing  else  but 
the  office  through  which  the  promise  is  imparted  to  every  one 
that  desires  it.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  Church,  in  effect,  has 
poxver  to  ordain  ministers. 

Christ,  in  Matt.  18:  18,  uses  these  words:  "Whatsoever  ye 
shall  bind,"  and  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  loose,"  etc. 

These  words  declare  and  specify  to  whom  He  gave  the  keys, 
namely,  to  the  whole  Cliurch.  The  power  of  the  keys,  therefore, 
authorizes  the  entire  body  of  believers  to  participate  in  the  exter- 
nal and  mediate  call. 

The  Second  Scriptural  basis  upon  which  the  whole  Church 
takes  part  in  the  call  is  the  accepted  doctrine  of  the  universal 
priesthood  of  believers,  1  Pet.  2  :  9.  Also,  1  Tet,  2 :  5,  "  Ye 
also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house,  a  hoJy  priest- 
hood to  offer  up  sjnritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  unto  God  by  Jesus 
Christ." 

Luther,  in  his  exposition  of  the  110th  Psalm,  says:  "If  we 
have  become  Christians  .  .  .  then  we  have  also  received  th6 
right  and  the  power  to  teach  and  confess  the  word  that  He  gives 
us  before  all,  every  one  according  to  his  calling  and  place.  For 
although  we  do  not  occupy  a  public  office  and  calling,  yet  every 
believer  may  and  should  teach,  exhort,  comfort  and  rebuke  his 
neighbor  through  the  Word  of  God,  whenever  and  wherever  that 
may  be  needed." 

Now  this  personal  privilege  and  duty  is  not  to  be  exercised 
publicly  by  every  one  ;  but  by  uniting  their  franchise  in  certain 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  241 

individuals  selected  for  the  public  service.  This  makes  it  not 
only  the  privilege,  but  the  duty  of  every  church  member  to  take 
part,  by  his  vote,  in  the  call  of  those  who  are  to  be  set  apart  for 
the  public  preaching  of  the  Word  and  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  This  is  productive  of  law  and  order.  All  believers 
thus  unite  in  the  priestly  functions  through  theiv  representative, 
and  officiating  pastor  who  fills  the  ministerial  office  by  delegated 
authority.  The  whole  Church  thus  preaches  the  word  to  Chris- 
tians and  a  sinful  world  through  the  agency  of  these  representa- 
tives whom  they  have  chosen,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  out  of  the  ranks  of  believers  by  the  mediate  call.  B^ut 
with  Gerhardt  we  may  say:  The  mediate  call,  no  less  than  the 
internal  and  immediate,  may  be  considered  divine :  For  1.  It  is 
referred  to  God  as  its  author:  Jer.  3:  15;  23  :  4 ;  1  Cor.  12; 
28  ;  Eph.  4:  11.  2.  It  is  based  upon  the  authority  of  the  Apos- 
tles :  1  Tim.  4 :  14  ;  2  Tim.  1:6;  2:2;  Acts  20 :  28.  3.  The 
mediate  call  is  attended  with  precious  promises :  2  Cor.  3:6; 
Eph.  4 :  12. 

The  third  step  of  advancement  is — Ordination. 

Ordination  is  defined  as  the  sign  and  seal  of  a  man's  divine 
call  to  the  ministry.  It  is  not  the  call  itself  It  is  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  same.  It  does  not  confer  the  essential  qualifications 
nor  the  divine  authority  of  the  ministerial  office.  That  comes 
down  from  God  through  the  internal  immediate  call,  and  through 
the  external  mediate  call,  made  through  the  Church.  The  latter 
is  in  recognition  of  adequate,  mental,  moral  and  spii'itual  gifts  in 
the  candidate  proposed. 

Then  comes  ordination  to  consummate  and  complete  the  "rite 
vocatus."     What,  then,  is  included  in  ordination? 

1.  An  exammaiioa  of  the  candidate.  The  subjects  upon  which 
examination  is  had  are  determined  by  the  various  Synods  who 
hold  tlie  door  of  entrance  to  the  ministry.  They  vary  but  little 
in  the  different  bodies.  The  principle  involved  is  the  same  in  all, 
that  is,  to  guard  tiie  entry  into  the  sacred  office  against  unquali- 
fied persons  and  to  protect  the  Church  against  imposition. 

2.  This  examination  is  executed  by  properly  authorized  and 
thoroughly  qualified  men.      It   is   the  privilege   of  the    whole 

16 


242  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Church  to  examine  the  candidate.  But  as  this  is  inconvenient, 
if  not  entirely  impossible,  the  duty  is  performed  by  representa- 
tives who  are  chosen  by  the  membership  for  their  qualifications 
and  fitness.  These  examiners  must  themselves  be  ordained  pres- 
byters, elders  or  ministers,  whose  immediate  appointment  is  made 
by  the  Synod. 

3.  A  report  is  made  to  the  Miuisterium.  This  report  must  be 
made  so  that  the  Church  through  its  ministers  may  intelligently 
and  finally  decide  that  the  candidate  is  worthy  and  well  qualified 
to  perform  the  solemn  and  responsible  work  of  the  sacred  office. 

4.  Consecration  by  the  Laying  on  of  Hands,  Gerhardt  (12  b. 
145)  says  that  "  Ordination  is  a  public  and  solemn  declaration 
or  attestation  through  which  the  ministry  of  the  Church  is  com- 
mitted to  a  suitable  person,  called  thereto  by  the  Church  to 
Avhich  he  is  consecrated  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  hands, 
rendered  more  certain  of  his  lawful  call,  and  publicly,  in  the 
sight  of  the  entire  Church,  solemnly  and  seriously  admonished 
concerning  his  duty."  Appropriately  is  the  laying  on  of  hands 
retained  and  the  anointing  rejected.  For  although  the  ysipod^aia 
is  not  a  sacramental  symbol  appointed  by  Christ  Himself  and 
commanded  to  be  employed  in  this  rite,  yet  it  is  retained — first, 
because  it  comes  down  to  us  sanctioned  by  the  practice  of  the 
Apostles  (Acts  6:  6;  1  Tim.  4:  14;  2  Tim.  1:  6),  and  second, 
because  it  carries  with  it  most  useful  and  solemn  admonitions. 
"  Ordination  is  nothing  else  but  the  public  and  solemn  con- 
firmation of  a  legitimate  call,  that  all  may  know  that  this  jierson 
has  not  taken  violent  possession  of  ecclesiastical  office  nor  crept 
in  otherwise,  after  the  manner  of  thieves  and  robbers,  l)ut  has 

entered  by  the  true  door Ordination  is  not  indispensably 

and  aljs(jlutely  necessary,  ....  for  it  is  neither  divinely  com- 
manded, so  that  it  cannot  be  omitted,  nor  is  its  influence  so  great, 
as  is  pretended  by  the  papacy,  so  that  it  cannot  be  omitted  with- 
out great  danger ;  nor  does  the  efficacy  of  the  office  depend  uj)on 
ordination,  as  though  the  gospel  could  not  be  savingly  taught 
without  it ;  but  it  is  an  apostolic  and  ecclesiastical  custom  which 
recommends  the  servant  of  the  word  and  admonishes  him  of  cer- 
tain most  sacred  duties."     (Baldwin.) 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE,  243 

Thus  we  have  shown  tliat  the  divine  call  to  the  ministry — 

1.  Originates  from  Christ  Hhnself  the  author  and  head  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

2.  The  call  is,  first,  internal  and  immediate— known  only  to 
the  person  himself. 

3.  Its  validity  is  tested  by  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  and 
this,  when  the  call  is  approved,  constitutes  the  mediate  call. 

4.  Ordination  is  the  consummation  and  ratification  of  the 
entire  divine  call  to  the  holy  ministry. 

5.  The  laying  on  of  hands,  according  to  Apostolic  custom,  is 
performed  by  the  whole  Church  through  the  Presbyters  or  Pas- 
tors by  delegated  authority. 

II.  What  is  the  essential  import  of  Ordination  f  It  conveys 
nothing  ex  opere  operate.  Though  numbered  among  the  seven, 
by  the  Romish  Church,  it  is  not  a  sacrament,  because  not  estab- 
lished by  direct  divine  command. 

"When  united  with  self-consecration,  on  the  part  of  the  candi- 
date, and  entire  devotion  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  sacred 
office,  it  conveys  special  and  peculiar  blessings.  Among  these 
is  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  not  in  the  degree  bestowed  upon 
the  Apostles,  yet  in  a  degree  above  that  in  confirmation.  So 
that  we  may  affirm  that  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  necessary 
for  the  discharge  of  the  sacred  duties  of  the  ministry,  are  con- 
ferred and  increased.  Nor  is  it  affirmed  that  the  bestowal  and  the 
gifts  are  to  be  "  ascribed  to  the  laying  on  of  hands  as  a  sacra- 
mental symbol,  truly  so  called  and  divinely  appointed ;  but  to 
the  prayers  of  the  Church  and  the  Presbytery  to  which  the  pro- 
mise of  hearing  have  been  made."  (Ghr.).  Ordination  carries 
with  it  the  off.ce  and  authority  : 

1.  To  teach. 

2.  To  preach  publicly. 

3.  To  administer  the  sacraments — Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

4.  The  function  of  remitting  sins. 

5.  The  function  of  retaining  sins. 

These  last  two  may  require  ex})lanation.  They  are  contained 
in  the  commission  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.    (John 


244  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

20:  21;  iNIark  16:  15).  They  are  not  unmeaning  declarations, 
but  real  powers.  "They  are  put  into  execution  only  by  teach- 
ing, preaching  the  Gospel  and  administering  the  sacraments;  and 
that  whether  to  many  or  to  single  individuals." 

The  power  is  delegated,  and  therefore  entirely  depends  on 
Christ.  It  must  be  exercised  only  in  His  name.  No  mistake  can 
possibly  be  made.  "No  absolution  is  ever  announced  that  does 
not  depend  on  a  confession;  and  as  absolution  always,  either 
silently  or  expressly,  presupposes  a  condition  of  contrition  and 
confession,  that  which  is  declared  by  the  voice  of  the  minister  to 
the  contrite  believer  is  confirmed  by  a  merciful  God  as  certainly 
as  if  Christ  Himself  were  to  say  to  the  penitent,  'Thy  sins  are  for- 
given thee.'  "    (Baur). 

The  special  gifts  which  are  conferred  b}^  hiying  on  of  hands, 
may  further  be  defined.  In  1  Tim.  4:  14,  Paul  says:  "Neglect 
not  the  gift  {y/ip'.rrp.ii)  that  is  in  thee,  which  was  given  thee  by 
prophecy,  with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery." 
Olshausen  says  that  "the  ydpiaiia  denotes  the  gift  of  the  divine 
Spirit  which  qualifies  him  for  the  Gospel — for  the  work  of  an 
evangelist  (2  Tim.  4 :  5),  and  of  which  he  had  to  make  use  at 
present  in  the  service  of  a  particular  church."  On  the  two 
words  "in  thee"  (^v  aoC)  we  have  an  explanation  in  2  Tim.  1:6: 
"  I  put  thee  in  remembrance  that  thou  stir  up  the  gift  of  God 
which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of  my  hands."  Here  the  gift 
is  represented  as  a  spark  of  the  s{)irit  lying  within  him,  the  kin- 
dling of  which  depends  on  the  will  of  him  on  whom  the  gift  is 
bestowed.  The  connection  of  the  bestowal  of  the  gift  with  the 
laying  on  of  hands,  depends  upon  the  meaning  attached  to  the 
preposition — ii.ira — in  the  Greek  text.  Liddell  and  Scott  in 
their  lexicon  say  that  before  the  genitive //^ra  means  "iu  con- 
nection with"  and  " by  means  . of."  So  reading  it,  whatever  is 
meant  by  "the  gift  of  God"  in  2  Tim.  1  :  6,  was  bestowed  "in 
connection  with,"  and  by  means  of  "  the  laying  on  of  hands  by 
the  Apostle  Paul." 

Norv  as  to  the  hying  on  of  hands  in  general.  We  have  exam- 
ples of  two  kinds  : 

1.  That  to  set  apart  individuals  for  some  particular  woi'k. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  245 

In  Acts  13  :  3,  hands  were  laid  on  Paul  and  Barnabas  by 
the  prophets  and  teachers  at  Antioch,  in  order  to  separate  them 
for  the  work  to  wliieh  they  were  called.  "  So,  they  being  sent 
forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  departed  on  a  long  and  successful 
mission. 

In  Acts  6 :  6,  hands  w'ere  laid  in  prayer  by  the  Apostles  on  the 
newly-elected  deacons,  in  order  to  ira})art  to  them  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit  for  their  ministry.  In  every  case  it  is  an  appropriation 
of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  prayer,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
others,  for  a  definite  object,  for  a  imrk  which  is  undertaken,  or  a 
service  which  is  entered  upon,  whether  this  service  be  marked 
out  in  a  standing  office  or  a  limited  mission. 

2.  That  to  set  apart  common  Christians  to  a  spiritual  life  in 
God's  service.  Such  was  the  case  in  Acts  8  :  17-19  :  28.  Here 
were  converts  to  Christianity  upon  whom  the  Apostles  laid  their 
hands,  and  they  received  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was  for  no  special 
calling  or  definite  sphere  of  duty,  but  for  the  general  calling  of 
the  Christian  spontaneously  to  serve  God  and  to  testify  the  new 
life  of  the  Spirit. 

Therefore  Ordination,  with  the  laying  on  of  hands  and  prayer, 
accompanied  by  self-consecration  on  the  part  of  the  candidate, 
confers  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
submission  and  devotion,  and  in  degree  adequate  to  the  discharge 
of  the  divine  commission. 

The  (piestion,  whether  ordination  performed  by  a  heretic  is 
valid,  has  been  answered  in  the  affirmative.  The  decision  has 
been  based  on  the  words  of  the  Saviour,  Matt.  23 :  2,  3 :  "  The 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat ;  all,  therefore,  whatsoever 
they  bid  you  observe,  that  observe  and  do.  But  do  not  ye  after 
their  works," 

III.  What  is  the  status  of  him  who  has  been  ordained  to  the 
ministry,  but  receives  no  call  to  take  charge  of  a  pastorate  ?  We 
would  answer,  though  the  ministry  is  not  an  order,  but  an  office, 
the  ordained  remains  a  minister.  He  may  not  for  years  receive 
a,  call.  Yet  while  he  enters  into  no  business  permanently,  but 
awaits  an  invitation,  and  stands  ready  to  serve  when  opportunity 
offers,  his  ministerial  standing  is  maintained,  and  that  for  an  in- 


246  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

definite  time.  Otherwise  we  must  couclude  that  the  call  of  a 
congregation  makes  and  Muniakes  the  minister,  and  not  the  call 
of  the  whole  Church  completed  by  ordination. 

IV.  The  Lutheran  estimate  of  ordination  includes  also  the 
question,  What  is  the  status  of  him  who,  having  been  ordained, 
and  having  served  for  years  as  regular  pastor,  yet,  by  want  of  a 
call,  or  by  disability,  has  been  permanently  retired,  possibly  much 
to  his  regret  ?  In  oxir  ojjuimi  his  ministerial  standing  is  main- 
tained to  the  end  of  life,  unless  he  voluntarily  propose,  for  the 
sake  of  entering  business,  to  lay  it  aside.  In  that  case  he  may 
so  do  by  asking  the  Synod  that  ordained  him  to  take  back  his 
ordination  papers,  and  relieve  him  of  the  responsibility.  This 
relegates  him  to  the  rank  of  an  ordinary  communing  member  of 
the  Church  and  of  that  congregation  to  which  he  belonged  before 
his  ordination. 

REMARKS. 

Dr.  Wolf  maintained  that  the  individual  congregation  and  not 
the  Synod  or  Ministerium  had  the  exclusive  right  of  calling  a  man 
and  thereby  making  him  a  minister.  He  did  not  believe  in  a 
special  grace  or  charism  being  conveyed  by  the  laying  on  of  clerical 
hands.  The  Church  of  Wiirtemberg  did  not  practice  ordination 
before  A.  D.  1855.  As  that  country  had  great  and  effective  preachers, 
some  of  them  having  a  world-wide  fame,  it  was  never  realized 
that  their  ministrations  were  in  any  way  defective  for  want  of 
ordination. 

He  challenged  the  right  of  any  body  of  men  to  ordain  a  candidate 
until  he  presented  a  call  from  some  congregation,  or,  it  may  be,  a  mis- 
sion board.  And  the  churches  sometimes  assert  their  sovereign  right 
as  over  against  a  self-perpetuating  ministerium.  The  latter  may  place 
their  label  on  a  man  and  say  he  is  a  preacher,  but  the  people  say.  We 
do  not  want  him,  and  his  ordination  goes  for  nothing.  He  knew  of 
preachers  ordained  without  a  call,  and  they  never  received  a  call.  By 
what  right  are  such  men  called  preachers,  ministers  ?  They  preach 
not,  they  minister  not — why  do  they  bear  the  name  ? 

He  also  claimed  that  when  a  man  ceased  official  ministrations  he 
practically  ceased  to  be  a  minister.  It  was  anomalous  and  disorderly 
for  such  men  to  claim  the  right  of  voting  at  Synods,  as  though  their 
ordination  gave  them  an  inalienable  right  to  shape  the  Church's  legis- 
lation and  a  perpetual  share  in  her  government.     In  a  number  of 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  247 

Synods  those  who  have  retired  from  the  active  ministry  nullify  the 
votes  and  defeat  the  views  of  men  who  are  braving  the  heat  and  bur- 
den of  the  day.  For  this  there  is  no  warrant  in  Lutheran  polity  or  in 
the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  idea  of  a  hierarchy,  a  clerical  aristocracy, 
which  is  a  remnant  of  the  pretensions  of  the  Romish  clergy.  Luth- 
eran theology  recognizes  no  distinction  between  a  layman  and  a  so- 
called  clergyman,  unless  the  latter  tills  the  office  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  and  administering  the  sacraments. 

Dr.  Seiss  said  there  was  danger  of  being  led  into  extremes  on  this 
subject,  both  on  the  side  of  hierarchism  and  on  the  side  of  irresponsi- 
ble individualism,  one  being  about  as  unscriptural  and  faulty  as  the 
other.  To  the  sentiments  voiced  by  his  friend.  Dr.  Wolf,  he  could  not 
subscribe.  He  did  not  believe  that  a  little  company  of  laymen,  of 
their  own  movement  organized  into  a  congregation,  and  without  a 
pastor,  is  the  true  and  only  source  of  a  rightful  call  to  the  ministry, 
or  that  with  them  rests  the  inherent  and  exclusive  divine  prerogative 
to  make  and  unmake  a  minister  of  Christ.  Where  there  is  no  other 
help  or  recourse,  no  one  disputes  their  right  and  duty  to  appoint  one 
of  their  number  to  exercise  the  ministry  for  them  ;  but  that  is  a  wholly 
abnormal  case.  It  is  also  a  blessed  thing  that  Christ  has  promised  to 
be  wherever  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  His  narrie ;  but  that 
does  not  signify'  that  He  has  authorized  them  to  create  and  ordain  a 
ministry  in  the  face  of  the  Church  around  them.  The  promise  holds 
the'  same,  although  the  two  or  three  may  be  women ;  but  where  has 
Christ  made  it  the  right  and  duty  of  women  to  ordain  ministers  for 
His  church? 

A  proper  call  to  the  ministry  is  necessary  to  the  rightful  exercise  of 
its  functions  ;  but  I  challenge  the  doctrine  that  that  call  must  be  by 
some  individual  local  congregation,  and  that  this  must  needs  precede 
ordination.  Individual  congregations  may  say  whom  they  will  accept 
as  their  pastors,  and  their  voice  and  choice  in  the  matter  are  not  to  be 
suppressed ;  but  that  does  not  mean  that  the  right  of  ordaining  minis- 
ters rests  with  them,  apart  from  those  already  in  the  office.  Christ 
ordained  the  twelve  Apostles,  not  in  the  name  of  subsequent  congrega- 
tions, but  in  His  own  name.  There  is  no  instance  in  the  Scriptures  of 
any  called  and  acknowledged  minister  of  the  Church  who  did  not  have 
commission,  authority  and  ordination  from  those  already  ordained. 
A  congregation  is  not  in  normal  condition  without  a  pastor,  and  a 
congregation  out  of  normal  condition  cannot  rightfully  represent  the 
Church,  and  so  is  not  in  condition  itself  to  exercise  all  the  rights  and 
prerogatives  of  the  Church,  especially  that  of  constituting  and  ordain- 


248  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

ing  a  ministry  for  the  Church.  Our  doctrine  is,  thiit  it  is  the  right 
and  power  of  the  Church  to  appoint  and  ordain  ministers  for  the 
Church  ;  but  no  individual  part  has  this  power  to  exercise  it  separately, 
except  by  the  common  consent  of  those  with  whom  it  stands  con- 
nected. The  Synod,  made  up  of  ministerial  and  lay  representatives  of 
the  churches,  surely  has  in  it  all  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of  the 
Church  at  large,  and  certainly  to  a  less  questionable  extent  than  a 
l)astorless  individual  parish.  And  whatever  part  the  Apostles  allowed 
in  the  selection  and  recommendation  of  public  servants  of  the  Church, 
they  were  always  strict  in  reserving  to  themselves,  or  to  those  already 
in  office,  the  right  to  confirm  or  ordain  those  to  be  entrusted  Avith 
sacred  functions ;  while  Paul  gives  it  as  a  sad  day  for  the  Church  when 
the  people,  after  their  own  lusts,  heap  to  themselves  teachers,  having 
itching  ears. 

Luther  was  as  radically  anti-hierarchical  as  any  one  could  well  be  ; 
yet  he  was  particular  to  insist  that,  where  things  are  normal,  the  pas- 
tors or  bishops  already  in  office  shall  participate  in  the  induction  of 
every  new  candidate  into  the  ministry.  Our  theologians  have  always 
held  that  to  the  ministers  belong  the  examination,  ordination  and 
inauguration  of  ministers.  All  the  theoretical  talk  of  the  divine 
rights  of  individual  congregations  to  call  and  constitute  pastors,  has 
everjnvhere  been  set  aside  in  Lutheran  practice.  It  is  an  ultra-con- 
gregationalism  which  must  needs  breed  disorder  in  practical  working, 
which  never  has  been  accepted  by  our  Church,  here  or  in  Germany, 
and  against  which  I  enter  my  solemn  protest.  Our  system  is  Synodi- 
cal,  and  congregations  united  in  Synod  are  certainly  as  divinely  com- 
petent to  call,  approve  or  ordain  ministers  for  the  Church  as  any  one 
of  them  in  separate  isolation ;  for  what  one  church  alone  can  do, 
surely  many  pastors  and  congregations  together  can. 

Dr.  G.  W.  Enders  said:  "Mr.  Chairman — I  should  like  to  inquire 
which  was  first,  the  congregation  or  the  ministry  ?  Did  the  congrega- 
tion first  exist  and  then  call  and  ordain  the  minister,  or  did  the  minis- 
ter first  preach  the  Gospel  and  gather  and  organize  the  congregation  ? 
Our  Lord  called,  qualified,  authorized  and  ordained  his  discijiles  as 
ministers  to  preach  tlie  Gospel  and  administer  the  Sacraments,  and  so 
create  and  organize  the  Church.  How  could  the  church  or  congrega- 
tion call  and  ordain  the  ministry  when  there  was  no  church  ?  The 
church  in  her  entirety  calls  and  ordains  men  properly  qualified 
for  the  olfice  of  the  ministry,  and  the  local  or  territorial  church  or 
congregation  calls  such  a.s  are  properly  authorized  and  ordained  to 
local  service  in  the  bounds  of  such  congregation.     If  every  congrega- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  249 

tion  of  a  handful  of  Christian  people  had  the  power  to  ordain  whom- 
soever they  deemed  fit  to  be  their  minister— and  also  the  right  to 
dismiss  him  and  so  disordain  him  at  their  pleasure — where  would  this 
theory  lead  and  where  end?  In  utter  disorder  and  confiision.  To  the 
Church  as  a  body  belongs  this  authority.  If  only  individual  conjrrega- 
tions  have  the  right  to  ordain,  then  had  India  still  to  wait  for  Father 
Heyer — and  Muhlenberg  in  Africa  were  still  a  heatlien  desert.  But 
Father  Heyer  was  ordained  and  sent  to  India,  and  there  he  created  a 
church.  Eev.  Morris  Officer  was  called  and  ordained  and  sent  to 
Africa,  and  there  he  organized  a  church.  So  our  Mission  Boards  now 
send  properly  qualified  and  ordained  ministers  into  Home  Mission 
fields  to  gather  and  organize  congregations,  and  these  congregations, 
when  so  properly  organized,  may  call  a  minister  into  their  ser-sice.  No 
congregation  in  Egypt  called  and  ordained  Moses.  Jonah  was  not 
ordained  by  the  Church  of  Nineveh.  Paul  was  not  called  and  ordained 
by  the  Church  in  Rome,"  etc.,  etc. 

Dr.  Hork  said :  There  are  two  principles  which  have  ruled  in  the 
Church  from  early  time  which  will  relate  to  this  question,  and  will 
help  to  decide  what  is  meant  by  the  conr/rcr/aiion,  when  we  say  that 
the  congregation  has  a  right  to  ordain.  One  is,  that  the  congregation 
at  any  particular  place  never  was  to  choose  and  ordain  its  pastor  Avith- 
out  the  assent  and  cooperation  of  other  churches.  As  early  as  the 
Nicene  Council  it  was  the  rule  that  no  bishop  should  be  ordained 
without  the  cooperation  of  three  neighboring  bishops.  The  people 
whose  pastor  he  was  to  be  gave  their  consent,  but  the  choice  was 
usually  mader  the  presidency  of  a  neighboring  bishop,  the  representa- 
tive of  another  "local  church."  No  "local  church"  was  to  act  in 
entire  disregard  of  the  whole  church.  Again,  as  early  as  Leo  the 
Great  it  was  forbidden  to  ordain  a  man  sine  iitulo,  i.  e.,  "at  large"  ;  a 
bishop  could  be  ordained  only  to  a  particular  pastorate.  The  impres- 
sion had  been  made  on  him  by  Dr.  Dimm's  paper,  that  the  effect  of 
Ordination  was  made  to  depend  in  too  great  a  degree  on  the  subjec- 
tive spiritual  condition  of  the  candidate.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  poured 
out  on  Christ,  the  Head  of  the  Church.  If  a  man  is  called  by  God 
through  the  Church  to  any  ofiice  in  it,  in  virtue  of  the  call  (which 
any  ceremony  can  only  bear  witness  to),  the  charism  that  answers  to 
that  call,  which  is  needed  for  the  fulfihnent  of  that  ofiice,  is  given,  to 
be  accepted  and  used,  or  to  be  rejected,  just  like  the  grace  ofiered  in 
the  Word  and  the  Sacraments. 


250  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Key.  Haas  said :  The  central  point  is  the  doctrine  of  the  ministry. 
I  cannot  accept  the  theorj'  of  Hoefling  and  Walther,  nor  can  I  go  as 
far  as  Kleifoth  and  Loehe.  I  would  rather  in  general  side  with 
Philipi)i.  The  ministry  is  given  to  tlie  Church  with  the  means  of 
grace.  The  Church  fills  it,  but  does  not  create  it.  The  Augsi)urg  Con- 
fession (Art.  V)  connects  the  ministry  with  the  Word  and  Sacraments. 
Christ  brought  the  ministry  and  gave  special  foundation  work  to  the 
Apostles,  for  which  He  gave  them  His  Spirit  (John  20 :  22).  The 
apostolate  was  not  continued.  It  ceased.  But  the  ministry  was  con- 
tinued in  another  form.  The  Apostles  and  their  helpers  appointed 
ciders,  /.  e.,  ministers  upon  the  vote  of  the  Church  (Acts  14 :  23 ; 
Tit.  1 :  5). 

Dr.  Dimm  said :  The  objections  of  Dr.  Wolf  were  fully  answered 
by  the  very  able  reply  made  by  Dr.  Seiss.  Dr.  Wolf's  thought  of  con- 
flict, between  the  introduction  and  closing  paragraphs  of  the  paper, 
was  caused  by  a  misapprehension  of  our  use  of  the  words.  In  the 
introduction  we  use  the  words  "congregation  of  believers"  in  the 
sense  of  the  whole  Church  in  general,  borrowing  them  from  the  sym- 
bols. In  the  latter  part  of  the  paper  we  use  the  word  "  congregation  " 
in  the  sense  of  a  local  subordinate  organization  of  Christian  wor- 
shippers, in  number  from  "  two  or  three  "  upwards. 

Now,  if  we  admit  that  these  few  people,  according  to  opinion  ex- 
pressed here,  are  a  congregation  that  have  a  right  to  select  a  man  as 
their  bishop  or  pastor,  either  of  their  own  number  or  of  others,  and 
thus  make  him  a  minister,  the  Synods  that  represent  the  whole  Church 
will  be  bound,  whatever  his  natural  and  acquired  qualifications  may 
be,  or  the  want  of  them,  to  ordain,  consecrate  and  set  apart  such  man 
to  the  holy  office.  This  view  is  defective  in  theory,  contrary  to  good 
judgment  and  the  teaching  of  experience,  and  impossible  of  successful 
execution  in  practice. 

STANDARD  OF   MINISTERIAL  EDUCATION. 

BY   W'.  E.  PARSON,  D.D. 

This  subject  is  directly  related  to  every  phase  of  the  life  and 
work  of  the  Cliurch.  Whatever  the  Church  counts  vital  must  be 
advocated  and  promoted  by  her  preacliers.  The  forcii,^  field 
and  the  home,  the  various  doctrinal,  liturgical,  educational  and 
missionary  interests,  concerning  which  we  are  met  to  confer,  the 
founding  of  schools,  the  endowment  of  college  and  seminary,  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  251 

defence  of  the  larger  caii^e  of  Christianity  in  its  contentions  witla 
error,  must  rest  chiefly  with  tlie  ministry.  Any  inadequate  or 
cheap  methods  of  bringing  men  into  this  office  ;  any  lowering  of 
the  standards  of  requirement  must  soon  react  disastrously  upon 
the  Church  herself.  We  assume,  therefore,  that  this  topic  is  in- 
ferior to  no  other  in  its  bearing  upon  the  varied  interests  of  the 
Church. 

And  b}"^  the  Church  we  mean,  in  general,  that  body  as 
defined  in  the  seventh  article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  in 
terms  the  broadest  and  most  liberal  to  be  found  in  any  creed- 
statement  of  Christendom,  viz. :  "  The  congregation  of  saints  in 
which  the  gospel  is  rightly  taught,  and  the  sacraments  rightly 
administered." 

In  particular,  we  mean  now  by  the  Church  that  body  in 
whose  interests  we  are  assembled ;  for  the  furtherance  of  whose 
doctrines  we  are  all  fellow-laborers;  and  for  the  union  of  all 
Avhose  forces  in  one  grand  forward  movement  for  Christ  and  for 
the  only  saving  truth  of  the  gospel,  we  all  must  most  devoutly 
wish  and  pray. 

In  taking  up  this  subject  for  discussion  we  are  oppressed  by 
the  embarrassment  which  is  created  by  the  difference  between  the 
ideal  minister  and  the  actual  result  as  turned  out  by  the  schools 
or  admitted  by  the  Synods. 

Bishop  Potter,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  has 
recently  said  (speaking,  of  course,  for  his  own  clergy),  that  he 
had  listened  to  many  extemporaneous  sermons  that  were  "  vulgar 
and  ungrammaticair 

One  of  the  leading  dailies  of  this  city  (Pliiladelphia  Press, 
December  13,  1898),  on  the  question  whether  there  has  been  a 
decadence  in  church  interest,  speaks  of  "those  installed  into  the 
ministry  who  are  not  sufficiently  educated  in  theology  to  hold 
sway  over  congregations." 

Because  the  standards  have  been  set  low  we  are  open  to  such 
criticism  in  all  the  churches.  Yet  we  bless  God  that  a  rusty 
wire  does  not  break  the  communication,  that  the  word  passes  on 
even  out  of  an  unworthy  mouth.  The  Scripture  ideal  is  so  high, 
the  work  so  exalted,  the  end  so  holy  that  instinctively  we  shrink 


252  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

back  to  ask :  Who  is  suflicieut  for  these  things  ?  There  is  no 
other  comfort  can  come  to  one  who  feels  his  inefficiency,  but  that 
which  Paul  took  to  himself  in  thinking  that  the  treasure  was  in 
an  earthen  vessel  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  might  be  of 
God  and  not  of  us.  The  entire  time  allotted  to  this  paper  might 
be  used  in  setting  forth  the  strong  charactei'istics  with  wliich  the 
Bible  invests  the  man  of  God  who  is  thoroughly  furnished. 
"  He  shall  purify  the  sons  of  Levi "  was  the  Old  Testament 
declaration.  Christ,  the  ideal  beyond  all  human  attainment,  was 
seen  in  prophetic  vision  by  Isaiah,  who  declared,  "  Righteousness 
shall  be  the  girdle  of  his  loins,  and  faithfulness  the  girdle  of  his 
reius."  Paul  shows  us  the  ideal  minister;  negatively,  "not  as  one 
tliat  beateth  the  air;"  "not  a  novice;"  "not  as  many  which  cor- 
rupt the  word  of  God;"  "not  given  to  wine,  no  striker,  not 
greedy  of  filthy  lucre,  not  a  brawler,  not  covetous ; "  "  and  the  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord  must  not  strive;"  but,  jyositively,  "  be  gentle 
unto  all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient ;  in  meekness  instructing 
those  that  oppose  themselves;"  "ambassadors  for  Christ;" 
"  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God  ;"  "faithful  and  able  to  teach 
others  also;"  "he  must  have  a  good  report  of  them  which  are 
without;"  "an  example  of  the  believers,  in  word,  in  conversa- 
tion, in  charity,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity;"  "a  pattern  of 
good  works;  in  doctrine  showing  uncorruptness,  gravity,  sincer- 
ity; sound  speech,  that  cannot  be  condemned;"  "that  he  may 
be  able  by  sound  doctrine,  both  to  exhort  and  to  convince  the 
gainsayers;"  "being  ensaniples  to  the  flock,  that  when  the  chief 
Shepherd  shall  appear,  he  shall  receive  a  crown  of  glory  that 
fadeth  not  away." 

Such  a  picture  of  the  ideal  preacher  is  both  encouragement 
and  discouragement.  It  is  high,  we  can  not  attain  unto  it.  Our 
gifts  are  few,  our  abilities  straitened,  and  we  cry  with  ]\Ioses — 
"  Who  am  I,  that  I  should  go  ?  I  am  not  eloquent." 

The  restriction  imposed  by  a  limit  of  time  allows  only  this 
passing  reference  to  the  standards  which  might  be  erected 
through  application  of  tliese  Bible  principles. 

It  is  said  that  Origen  once  in  Jerusalem  was  ui'ged  by  the 
pastor  to  preach,  and  that  he  sini])ly  read  from  the  fiftieth  })r-alm: 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  253 

"What  hast  thou  to  do  to  declare  my  statutes,  or  that  thou 
shouldest  take  my  covenant  in  thy  mouth?"  Then  sitting  down 
he  burst  into  tears,  and  all  the  congregation  \vith  him.  That 
feeling  must  often  overcome  the  faithful  minister. 

As  I  understand  the  subject,  "Standard  of  Ministerial  Educa- 
tion," we  are  to  look  at  it  rather  from  the  academic  side.  The 
topic  belongs  to  the  educational  interests  set  forth  in  the  call  for 
this  Conference.  We  might  change  the  form  of  the  subject,  ex- 
pressing it  interrogatively— What  Educational  Standards  guide 
in  determining  the  fitness  of  candidates  for  the  holy  office  of  the 
ministry?  We  assume  that  the  spiritual  qualificatious  are  met. 
The  question  of  zeal  is  settled.  We  are  only  concerned  now 
about  the  knowledge,  so  as  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  supplying 
the  Church  with  a  class  of  [teachers  who  "  have  a  zeal  of  God, 
but  not  according  to  knowdedge."  Their  race  increases  rapidly 
enough,  with  all  the  caution  we  can  exercise.  Surely  we  need 
make  no  provision  for  adding  to  their  number,  either  by  abbre- 
viating the  required  course  of  study,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing, 
by  lowering  the  standard  of  educational  requirement. 

We  must  recognize  at  once  the  jiractical  difficulties  in  the  way, 
making  it  almost  impossible  to  enforce  a  uniform  standard,  arbi- 
trary and  absolute.  Rules,  when  too  rigid,  become  inoperative. 
There  must  be  some  flexibility.  The  various  fields  of  usefulness 
in  the  Church  will  allow  that  there  should  be  a  varying  product 
by  the  modification  of  our  standard,  when  we  have  once  agreed 
upon  it.  As  you  do  not  cut  a  granite  rock  with  a  razor,  you 
may  find  a  place  of  eminent  usefulness  for  one  whom  the  schools 
were  not  able  to  sharpen.  The  law  of  survival  of  the  fittest  must 
work,  as  it  does  in  the  other  walks  of  life.  In  the  legal,  medical, 
and  scientific  professions,  the  standards  are  set,  with  examina- 
tions and  conditions  hedging  off  the  entrance.  There  must 
always  be  a  working  out  of  the  problem  of  individual  fitness  and 
success,  by  use,  by  application  of  theories  learned  in  the  schools, 
by  experience,  by  mistake  often,  by  contact  with  men. 

Some  of  these  principles  apply  here,  in  so  far  as  the  ministry 
is  a  profession  or  calling  with  a  luinian  side  to  it.  We  can  only 
hedge  the  human  side,  and  set  up  our  standards  to  be  applied  so 


254  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

fur  as  fallible  men  can  successfully  or  reverently  set  limits  to  the 
methods  by  which  the  ministerial  office  is  perpetuated.  We  must 
recognize,  also,  that  there  are  certain  qualifications  which  cannot^ 
in  the  nature  of  things,  be  developed  until  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try has  actually  been  begun.  The  qualities  that  make  leader- 
ship, sympathy,  and  the  tact  which  knows  how  to  deal  with  hu- 
man nature,  upon  the  possession  of  which  so  much  depends,  must 
come  to  their  ripest  usefulness  in  the  progress  of  time.  These 
things  cannot,  therefore,  be  made  factors  in  the  requirements  set 
doNvn  in  advance.  Indeed,  if  we  look  at  these  elements,  we  shall 
find  that  they  all  belong  to  a  class  of  desiderata  which  the  schools 
cannot  supply.  Pastoral  theology  may  tell  how  to  proceed  in  a 
given  case,  but  the  manner  cannot  be  taught  in  the  lecture-hall. 
Homiletic  may  lay  down  the  rules  for  the  making  of  a  sermon, 
but  the  true  preacher  is  in  a  sense  superior  to  homiletical  rules. 
For  sermonizers,  like  poets,  are  born,  not  made. 

Assuming  now  that  the  standards  we  are  to  discuss  are  educa- 
tional, chiefly,  we  come  upon  two  main  questions  for  our  consid- 
eration : 

First.  What  are  these  requirements  without  which  the  candi- 
date should  not  be  received  ? 

Second.  How  shall  the  standards  be  applied,  or  by  whom  be 
enforced  ? 

In  answering  the  first  question,  in  order  to  reach  a  determina- 
tion as  to  the  required  grade  of  educational  equipment,  we  can 
dismiss  all  consideration  of  the  mural  and  spiritual  fitness  of  the 
candidate.  These  are  factors  unconnected  with  the  educational, 
and  can  be  determined  separate  and  a|)nrt,  even  in  advance  of 
the  entrance  upon  an  academic  course — certainly  before  the 
theological  course  of  study  is  concluded. 

Supervision  of  the  educational  preparation  must  run  back  over 
the  years  of  student  life,  el-^e  no  standard  could  fairly  be  applied. 
We  must  give  notice  that  we  expect  such  a  grade  of  attainment 
in  certain  specified  branches,  in  which  examinations  will  be  con- 
ducted. It  is  too  late  to  announce  your  standard  when  the  can- 
didate is  under  examination.  The  work  has  been  done.  Can 
your  candidate  meet  the  test  now  to  be  applied  ?     It  is  too  late 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  255 

to  ask  bow  you  will  plan  your  house  when  the  builder  is  about  to 
hand  you  the  keys.  You  are  to  move  in  on  the  morrow,  and  as 
it  is,  you  must  occupy  it. 

Let  me  indicate  some  of  the  most  important  elements  in  the 
educational  requirement  in  order  to  meet  the  standard  of  an  ideal 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  The  standard  ought  to  be  set  so  as  to  re- 
quire a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  language  in  which  the  candi- 
date proposes  to  preach.  Yet  it  is  a  lamentable  truth  tliat  our 
colleges  and  seminaries  graduate  men  who  are  very  deficient  in 
the  fundamentals  of  education.  How  to  correct  these  defects 
that  run  so  far  back  into  the  course  of  preparatory  training  is  one 
of  the  chief  difficulties  in  the  way  of  enforcing  an  absolute  stan- 
dard. 

Several  of  our  district  Synods  in  the  General  Synod  have 
wrestled  with  this  problem,  and  are  now  making  the  experiment 
of  dismissing  from  their  funds  all  the  candidates  who  fall  below 
an  average  standing  in  their  studies  of  85  per  cent.  There  are 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  an  enforcement  of  such  a  rule.  One 
difficulty  is  found  in  the  fact  that  a  student,  though  dropped  from 
the  Synod's  funds,  when  falling  under  the  required  percentage, 
may  not  have  reached  the  low  grade  which  would  cause  him  to 
be  dropped  from  his  class  by  the  college  authorities.  We  may 
then  have  the  anomalous  condition  of  things,  tliat  a  student,  dis- 
missed from  the  list  of  the  Synod's  candidates  for  the  ministry,  is 
going  on  with  his  work  in  the  college,  liaving  an  honorable  stand- 
ing and  a  notation  in  studies  that  will  advance  him  to  the  next 
class  in  the  next  year.  Or,  we  may  confront  this  other  embar- 
rassment, that  students  thus  blacklisted  might  leave  the  institu- 
tion and  Synod  in  which  they  have  been  so  dealt  with,  going  to 
another  college  having  no  such  rule. 

One  of  the  General  Synod  institutions  has  now  a  number  of 
students  who  have  come  into  her  classes  under  just  such  circum- 
stances, having  been  crowded  out  of  another  institution  in  the 
same  general  body  by  the  application  of  such  a  notation  standard. 
All  these  things  are  elementary.  Yet  we  are  convinced  that  a 
large  number  of  our  divinity  students  would  be  likely  to  fail  here 
rather  than  in  History,  Dogmatic  or    Homilctic.      Indeed,  we 


256  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

miflit  fiiirly  assume  that  the  usual  curricuhim  of  the  theological 
seminary  would  be  required  in  the  making  of  any  standard. 
Hence  we  indicate  a  few  tilings  outside  the  usual  course. 

The  candidate  for  ministerial  orders  ought  to  know  the  Bible 
both  in  his  own  tongue  and  in  the  original  language  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Pie  can  not  know  his  English  or  German  Bible  properly 
unless  he  is  prepared  to  receive  the  benefit  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  research  which  others  have  made,  if  he  does  not  himself 
enter  upon  such  research.  INIisquotation  of  the  Scripture  is 
almost  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit.  Any  candidate  who  can- 
not quote  his  English  Bible  correctly  should  be  reckoned  as  fall- 
ing below  the  required  standard.  He  ought  to  know  his  own 
creed.  He  ought  to  know  it  well  enough  to  be  a  walking  rebuke 
to  the  superficial  criticism  of  our  time  against  creeds.  He  ought 
to  stand  in  his  place  to  declare  that  a  creed  is  as  necessary,  in  its 
way,  as  the  Scripture  itself.  For  a  man  might  announce  his  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Bible,  yet  we  could  not  know  whether  he  were 
orthod(jx  or  heretic.  But  if  he  will  show  us  his  creed  we  can 
identify  him.  A  man  without  a  creed  is  a  liver  without  banks — 
in  other  words,  a  swamp. 

We,  who  hold  the  first  creed  of  Protestantism,  both  in  the 
order  of  time  and  of  merit,  can  say  this  with  an  emphasis 
which  will  hardly  be  found  among  the  adherents  of  any  other 
form  of  Christian  faith. 

AVhile  other  creed-bonds  are  loosening,  in  the  skepticism  of  the 
times,  our  own  devotion  to  the  Augustana  grows  with  the  growth 
of  the  years,  and  the  new  century  will  likely  see  the  Church  of 
the  Reformation  outstripping  in  numbers  and  influence  every 
other  organization  in  Protestantism. 

In  illustration  of  the  loosened  hold  which  others  have  upon 
tiieir  own  creeds,  let  me  cite  a  recent  example.  Dr.  Gordon,  of 
the  New  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  in  an  address  delivered  at 
the  Jubilee  Anniversary  of  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  said, 
that  Calvinism,  as  an  adccpiate  interpretation  of  the  ways  of  God 
with  men,  or  even  as  a  working  philosophy  of  life,  Avas  gone. 
Her  followers,  he  declared,  are  waiting  for  another  theology  to 
fill  the  vacant  throne,  and  are  lamenting  that  no  contrasted  con- 
ception of  equal  thoroughness  and  vigor  has  yet  come. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  257 

Doctor  Gordon's  entire  address,  vrheu  closely  scrutinized,  be- 
comes exceedingly  instructive.  It  shows  us  the  unsatisfying 
nature  of  any  system  of  doctrine  which  fails  to  make  Christ  its 
centre.  As  his  address  declares — "  the  righteousness  of  God  must 
come  to  sovereign  expression  in  the  incarnation."  Does  he  not 
know  other  creeds?  Can  he  not  see  in  our  own  earlier,  Christo- 
centric  statement  of  Protestant  doctrine  a  "  contrasted  concep- 
tion "  of  even  greater  thoroughness  and  vigor  than  Calvinism 
ever  showed  ;  finding,  as  Calvinism  did  not,  a  sovereign  expres- 
sion of  the  righteousness  of  God  in  the  incarnation  ? 

Whatever  standards  we  establish  for  entrance  upon  the  duties 
of  pastor  and  preacher  in  our  Church,  we  can  never  omit  insist- 
ance  upon  a  knowledge  and  full  acceptance  of  our  standards  of 
doctrine. 

How  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher,  who  knows  the  history 
and  doctrine  of  the  Church  he  serves? 

Take  another  instance  from  the  ranks  of  our  own  ministry 
in  illustration  of  the  need  of  this  knowledge  of  his  own  creed. 

One  of  our  doctors,  Avho  essays  to  instruct  others,  has  frequently 
declared  in  public  print,  where  it  may  have  done  some  mischief 
that  it  is  not  fiindamentally  laid  down  in  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion that  salvation  has  its  source  in  the  paternal  love  of  God  ;  and 
has  urged  that  it  might  be  well  to  revise  our  creed,  at  least  to 
that  extent. 

Our  Calvinistig  brethren  when,  some  years  since,  they  were 
debating  the  revision  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
seriously  proposed  to  add  such  an  article  to  their  creed — the  form 
of  which  was  actually  submitted  by  the  late  Doctor  Schaff — 
affirming  the  divine  goodness,  and  declaring  that  redemption  took 
its  roots  in  the  love  of  God.  That  was  all  right  for  Calvinism, 
to  balance  up  against  its  harsher  declarations  respecting  election, 
reprobation  and  infant  damnation.  But  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion has  no  such  gaps,  and  we  do  not  want  to  be  mortified  by 
seeing  one  of  our  ministers,  who  comes  so  near  to  the  required 
standards  on  other  lines,  sending  it  out  to  the  world  that  there  is 
nothing  in  our  creed  teaching  that  redemption  is  based  upon  the 
paternal  love  of  God.  How  could  such  a  glaring  error  be  made 
17 


258  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

when  the  very  first  article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  declares  our 
faith  in  the  infinite  goodness  of  God ;  the  third  article  speaks  of 
our  consolation,  defence  and  protection  against  the  devil  and  the 
power  of  sin ;  the  fourth  article  teaches  that  we  obtain  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  through  grace ;  the  fifth  article  assures  us  that 
we  have  a  mercijxd  God,  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ ;  the 
twentieth  article  declares :  "  He  that  knoweth  that  he  hath  the 
Father  merciful  to  him  through  Christ,  this  man  knoweth  God 
truly;"  the  twenty-seventh  article  teaches  us  "to  trust  assuredly 
that  God  is  pacified  toward  us,  for  Christ's  sake,  to  ask  and  cer- 
tainly to  look  for  help  from  God  in  all  our  affairs."  Indeed,  the 
whole  scheme  of  salvation,  as  set  forth  in  our  most  remarkable 
confession,  moves  to  its  consummation  in  an  atmosj)here  of  the 
goodness  and  paternal  love  of  God,  coming  to  sovereign  expres- 
sion in  the  incarnation.  This  much  each  preacher  must  know  of 
hi«  own  creed. 

The  ideal  preacher  ought  to  know  other  creeds.  While  he 
may  not  wisely  give  his  strength  to  antagonizing  them,  he  must 
know  their  history  and  doctrine  in  order  to  defend  his  own. 
There  are  great  questions  astir,  especially  in  our  age,  all  of 
which  run  back  in  some  form  into  the  religious  life  of  the  people. 
The  ideal  minister  must  be  fitted  to  take  his  share  in  the  discus- 
sion and  settlement  of  tliose  problems.  He  may  not  be  able  to 
solve  them  all.  He  could  not  hope  for  the  wisdom  needful  for 
that,  even  at  the  end  of  his  ministerial  life.  We  could  not  fairly 
expect  it  of  him  at  the  beginning.  He  must  feel  enough  moved 
by  the  Zeit-geist  to  do  his  work  with  freedom  to  himself  and  the 
largest  helpfulness  to  his  parish ;  yet  not  with  any  sense  of 
suffocation  through  the  multitude  of  heresies  and  fanaticisms 
which  becloud  the  ecclesiastical  sky  in  these  last  days. 

The  age  is  materialistic,  and  the  multitude  perverted  to  every 
kind  of  fantastic  teaching,  hence  the  ideal  minister  must  know  the 
isms  and  schisms  that  abound  to  set  men  on  their  guard.  In 
other  words,  he  must  know  the  errors  that  are  arraying  them- 
selves against  the  truth,  just  as  the  entomologist  must  impale  the 
repulsive  as  well  as  the  beautiful.  He  ought  to  know  general 
literature ;  politics,  in  a  good  sense ;  philosophy,  sociology ;  in  ad- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  259 

dition  to  the  usual  routine  of  study  in  the  theological  seminary, 
he  should  know  of  the  best  of  scientific  study,  the  poets  and  the 
book  of  human  nature. 

When  one  of  these  modern,  shallow  advocates  of  that  unphilo- 
sophical  moonshiue  called  Chridian  Science  is  met,  let  the 
preacher  quietly  quote  his  Bible  about  the  ''  oppodlions  of  science, 
falsely  so  called."  If  that  is  not  enough,  let  him  open  his  Shake- 
speare and  ask  the  question  which  the  Bard  of  Avon  asked,  with 
one  of  these  pestiferous  troublers  in  mind  : 

"  Who  can  hold  a  fire  in  his  hand 
By  thinking  on  tlie  frosty  Caucasus? 
Or  cloy  the  hungry  edge  of  appetite, 
By  bare  imagination  of  a  feast  ? 
Or  wallow  naked  in  December's  snow, 
By  thinking  on  fantastic  Summer's  heat?  " 

— Rich.  II.,  Act.  I.,  Sc.  IV. 

One  of  the  topics  of  this  Conference  deals  with  Modern  Re- 
ligious Issues.  These  the  preacher  must  be  prepared  to  meet, 
and  his  standard  of  equipment  ought  to  be  such  as  to  qualify 
him  fully  on  such  lines.  His  intellectual  culture  must  bring  him 
abreast  of  the  times,  without  allowing  him  to  degenerate  into  a 
humanitarian  fanatic,  a  temperance  crank,  a  sociological  bore, 
expending  all  his  intellectual  acumen  on  penology,  charity  organ- 
ization, reform  movements  or  allied  topics,  to  the  detriment  of 
his  chief  work. 

All  these  things,  with  others  which  the  time  would  fail  me  to 
tell,  enter  into  the  creation  of  a  standard  by  which  to  measure 
the  fitness  of  a  prospective  candidate  for  the  holy  office  of  the 
ministry,  whose  usefulne>s  is  likely  to  be  commensurate  with  his 
ability  to  meet  the  requirements. 

If  it  be  true,  as  one  of  the  writers  on  homiletics  has  said,  that 
every  sermon  is  only  worth  the  effect  it  produces,  then  it  must  be 
further  true  that  every  preacher  is  worth  only  the  effect  he  is 
able  to  produce.  There  nui^the  the  man  behind  the  sermon — the 
man  behind  the  pastor — with  a  knowledge  of  this  world,  as  well 
as  a  specialist's  knowledge  of  spiritual  things.  The  message 
must  convince,  if  not  immediately  of  the  truth  of  the  message. 


2G0  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

at  leant  of  the  truth  of  the  messenger,  so  it  can  be  said  of  the 
minister  now,  as  was  said  of  Basil,  that  his  preaching  is  like 
the  thunder  and  his  life  like  the  lightning.  If  we  liave  made 
only  the  humcm  side  perfect  we  have  not  completed  our  work. 
"We  may  have  been  guilty  of  unintentional  Simony  in  supposing 
"that  the  gift  of  God  may  be  purchased  with  money"  expended 
on  education,  and  other  things  connected  with  a  jmrely  material 
equipment. 

The  bird  with  one  wing  can  only  flutter  to  the  ground,  with 
diflSculty  jH'eventing  flight  from  becoming  a  fall.  So  by  our 
human  preparation  alone  we  can  not  soar  into  the  realms  that 
will  give  us  a  vision  of  the  King  in  His  beauty.  We  have  al- 
ways in  our  Church  striven  to  rightly  co-ordinate  these  human 
and  divine  factors.  We  hold  to  the  somewhat  old-fashioned 
notion  that  the  call  to  the  office  of  the  ministry  is  a  divine  call. 
We  have  never  held  to  the  fanatical  and  suicidal  theory  that  one 
so  called  of  the  Holy  Ghost  does  not  need  any  other  outfit ;  that 
no  standards  are  to  be  set  up,  no  tests  of  fitness  applied. 

There  remains  time  for  the  briefest  possible  statement  as  to  the 
second  part  of  the  topic :  How  shall  the  Standard  be  applied  ;  by 
whom  be  enforced  ?  There  are  two  points,  in  our  existing  ma- 
chinery, at  which  to  apply  our  theory,  so  as  to  bring  the  candi- 
dates approximately  up  to  our  standard.  The  relation  of  the 
Synod  to  the  schools  is  involved  in  this  matter.  The  Theological 
Seminary  (with  its  feeders)  and  the  Synod  must  co-operate  to 
enforce  the  requirements.  It  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  possible  to 
fix  a  grade  in  scholarship,  or  a  per  centage  rating,  in  a  course  of 
study,  that  will  secure  the  desired  results.  There  are  many  men 
of  many  minds,  and  some  rather  dull  students  have  been  preachers 
of  great  power,  and  instruments  under  God  of  infinite  good.  But 
of  one  thing  we  are  convinced,  that  no  educational  machinery 
should  be  set  in  motion  for  turning  out  a  jjartially-prepared 
ministry.  Synod  should  never  let  down  in  its  requirements,  by 
partial  examinations,  by  the  questionable  system  of  licensure,  or 
by  the  reprehensible  practice  of  ad  interim  licensure. 

The  Synod,  in  our  system,  guards  the  door.  She  assumes  the 
responsibility.     Her  authority  is  absolute.     All  else  is  prepara- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  2G1 

tory,  wlietlier  the  school  be  academic  or  theologic  ;  or,  as  may 
happen,  the  candidate  be  self-taught.  The  Synod  of  Maryland 
has  recently  enacted  a  rule  that  all  ministers  from  other  churches 
shall  undergo  the  same  examination  as  the  regular  applicants 
for  ordination. 

General  Conclusions. 

1.  There  should  be  a  sti'icter  supervision  by  the  Synod  of  the 
young  candidates  for  the  ministry  in  the  early  stages  of  their 
education.  If  the  Standards  are  to  be  advanced,  the  beginnings 
must  be  made  at  that  end  of  the  line. 

2.  This  more  rigid  supervision  Cduring  the  academic  course) 
of  students  in  preparation  for  the  ministry,  at  the  Synod's  ex- 
pense, should  result  in  better  material,  stimulating  the  dull,  en- 
couraging the  diligent,  dropping  the  incapable,  unspiritual  or 
vicious. 

3.  Our  denominational  colleges  should  be  guarded  by  the  Syn- 
ods against  any  lowering  of  the  standard  of  admission  to  the 
several  classes,  under  the  mistaken  desire  of  gaining  an  increased 
registration.  This  can  readily  be  done  in  all  colleges  under  the 
control  and  government  of  the  Church. 

It  is  not  possible  if  the  college  is  a  close  corporation,  without 
synodical  representation  in  its  Board,  and,  therefore,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  an  undenominational  institution. 

4.  Examinations  should  be  carefully  conducted,  under  the  eye 
of  the  Synod's  Committee,  in  the  years  preceding  the  close  of 
the  theological  course. 

5.  The  same  or  equivalent  standards  should  be  agreed  upon  in 
all  the  theological  schools  of  our  general  bodies;  and  as  far  as 
possible  in  our  Synods,  to  be  enforced  by  their  examining  com- 
mittees, and  endorsed  in  final  action  by  the  JVIini.-terium, 

6.  No  candidate  for  the  ministry,  dismissed  from  one  school  or 
rejected  by  one  Synod,  should  be  accepted  by  the  schools  or  synods 
of  any  other  co-ordinate  body,  unless  by  mutual  agreement. 

This  has  happened,  not  as  between  Council  and  Synod,  but  as 
between  the  several  theological  seminaries  of  the  General  Synod. 
As  one  of  the  practical  forms  in  which  the  matter  of  co-operation 
can  be  further  applied,  we  make  these  two  suggestions. 


262  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

7.  lu  general,  we  would  recoaimeud  synods  to  more  carefully 
guard  the  entrance  door  rather  than  the  exit.  Our  governmeut 
military  and  naval  schools  are  more  particular  in  the  reception 
of  candidates  than  at  any  other  point.  We  shall  find  one  sure 
method  of  raising  our  standard  if  we  fix  our  attention  here.  We 
shall  produce  a  race  of  preachers  to  each  one  of  whom  we  may 
justly  apply  the  words  of  Tennyson  : 

"  Thou  art  no  Sabbath-drawler  of  old  saws, 
Distill  d  from  some  worm-canker'd  homily." 

STANDARD  OF  MINISTERIAL  EDUCATION. 

BY  KEV.  F.  A.   KAHLER. 

We  consider  the  subject  under  two  questions,  which  we  en- 
deavor to  answer. 

A.  What  is  our  standard,  and  why  must  it  continually  come 
before  us  with  new  interest  ? 

B.  What  is  the  shaping  element  in  education,  which  fixes  the 
standard  for  the  Christian  ministry  ? 

A. 

Our  standard,  as  compared  with  that  of  any  learned  profession, 
must  be  equal  to  the  highest,  and  Avith  advancing  learning  in  the 
university  our  standard  must  keep  rising.  Tliis  demand  is 
iccognizt  d,  and  many  of  the  noblest  efforts  are  made  to  satisfy  it, 
in  establishing  Christian  schools,  colleges  and  theological  semina- 
ries, in  giving  munificent  endowments  and  in  sending  forth 
choicest  literature. 

(1.)  Our  standard  must  grow  broader  in  scope.  There  are 
always  new  branches  of  learning  and  investigation,  and  the  min- 
ister must  feel  the  touch  of  intelligent  sympathy  with  the  students 
of  each  ibranch.  Our  whole  commission  is  to  make  all  nations 
Christ's  disciples,  students,  followers,  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  that  He  commanded.  As  divinely  sent  leaders  of  men's 
thinking,  we  must  be  acquainted  with  their  forms  of  thinking  and 
channels  of  thought.  The  guides  of  students  must  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  their  absorbing  studies.  To  reach  men  we  must  know 
them,  and  to  know  them  we  must  know  their  mental  world. 
That  world  is  expanding,  and  our  standard  must  grow  broader. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  2G3 

(2.)  Our  advancing  standard  must  keep  its  beigbt.  Tbe  ex- 
alted proportion  must  not  be  disturbed.  We  dare  not  sacrifice  in 
altitude  wbat  we  gain  in  latitude.  We  dare  not  try  to  level  God's 
mountain  merely  to  make  its  base  broad.  There  is  a  ditFerence 
between  a  pile  of  stones  and  the  Cathedral  of  Cologne.  True, 
education  is  broad,  but  it  has  something  more  than  expanded 
flatness.  The  mathematical  plane  is  an  imaginary  thing,  and  it 
should  be  left  such.  We  have  no  yearning  for  mere  spread  ma- 
terialized. If  education  is  not  elevating  it  is  not  education. 
Philistines  are  always  ready  to  make  raids  into  God's  holy  hills. 
This  leveling  age  would  grade  down  Calvary  for  rapid  railway 
transit,  and  use  the  pattern  of  the  Cross  for  telegraph  poles. 
Sinai  was  made  holy  and  full  of  dread  by  the  giving  of  the  law  to 
Moses.  Some  of  the  learned  of  our  day  can  take  that  law  and 
with  irreverent  hands  run  it  into  ingenious  patterns  of  the  striped 
and  ring-streaked,  and  substitute  for  all  its  exalted  Mosaic 
solemnity  and  awe  kindergarten  mosaics  of  glaring  polychrome. 
Some  keen  and  intellectual  students  seem  to  value  only  the  parch- 
ment of  the  law  of  God  and  to  use  that  only  for  a  strop  to  put  a 
finer  edge  upon  the  sharp  instruments  of  their  incisive  criticism 
and  to  be  satisfied  and  to  expect  the  world  to  be  so.  In  our 
standard  we  need  something  higher  than  that  spirit,  though  it 
flatly  calls  itself  high. 

(3.)  Furthermore  we  need  a  higher  grade  of  manly  develop- 
ment in  every  direction  of  discipline,  (a.)  Even  in  physical  dis- 
cipline. The  demands  upon  our  strength  are  more  exacting  than 
at  any  previous  age.  Close  communication  with  all  parts  of 
the  world  gives  greater  complexity  and  wider  reach  to  all 
branches  of  the  work  that  we  are  to  grasp  and  hold  and  hallow. 
We  cannot  keep  pace  with  the  march  of  life  without  great  physi- 
cal strain.  Our  standard  calls  for  well-trained  physical  frames. 
It  is  true  that  athletics  have  turned  out  circus  performers  and 
professional  nothings,  but  they  have  also  made  heroes  who  hunted 
down  the  inquisition  on  San  Juan  hill  and  scattered  its  wrecks  in 
Manila  Bay  and  along  the  smoking  shores  of  Cuba.  If  the  brutal 
prize  ring  basely  claims  for  physical  strength  and  prowess  the 
first  place  in  manliness,  does  tl\e  class-room  not  grossly  err  in 
giving  them  scarcely  any  place  ?     Surely  athletics  can  be  used  to 


264  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

educate  the  physical  strength  of  the  servant  of  God  and  leader 
of  men  to  endure  hardness  in  the  campaign  for  expanding  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord. 

(6)  There  is  need  of  larger  mental  discipline.  Specialization 
of  work  has  brought  a  larger  amount  of  information,  and  while 
we  do  not  need  to  know  more  of  the  truth  of  God  than  our  faith- 
ful fathers  knew,  we  must  know  more  things  in  order  to  do  as 
effective  service  as  they  did  in  preaching  the  truth  to  men.  If 
Thomas  had  been  the  only  kind  of  doubter  the  field  of  apolo- 
getics would  have  been  closed  the  week  after  Easter. 

(c)  We  need  a  larger  moral  discipline.  The  greater  diversity 
of  attack  upon  our  faith  and  the  more  subtle  ingenuity  of  in- 
sinuation from  all  sides  of  learned  skepticism  and  unbelief  ab- 
sorbing and  distracting  the  mind  call  for  more  unswerving  fidelity 
and  tenacious  and  obedient  firmness  in  faith  than  ever  before. 

(d)  We  are  justified  in  demanding  more  from  applicants  for 
ordination  and  in  making  a  more  select  choice  for  the  special 
work  of  the  ministry.  For  this  reason :  In  the  development  of 
the  diaconate  a  larger  variety  and  scope  of  work  will  be  found 
for  many  useful  servants  of  Christ.  Not  every  one  who  wishes  to 
give  all  his  strength  to  this  service,  need  on  that  account  be  set 
apart  for  the  ministry  in  the  stricter  sense.  Work  in  the  Church 
schools,  in  Sunday-schools,  in  colleges,  in  larger  parish  work,  in 
institutions  of  mercy,  and  medical  missions,  calls  for  many  con- 
secrated men.  The  question  has  been  raised  whether  we  are  in 
want  of  more  men  in  the  ministry ;  there  certainly  can  be  no 
question  that  we  need  more  thoroughly  trained,  fully  disciplined 
and  learned  manfulness  everywhere.  Learn  from  the  wisdom  of 
the  world  to  specialize.  Our  standard  must  call  for  specialists 
in  the  ministry.  We  must  bring  power  in  order  to  wield  power 
in  the  Church.  Masterful  thoroughness  commands  the  influence 
and  standing  which  whimpering  incompetency  demands  and 
never  gets. 

Moreover,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  system  whereby  young 
men  leaving  the  seminary  could  serve  for  some  years  as  assistants 
to  pastors  of  experience  in  large  charges  would  add  immensely  to 
the  effectiveness  of  their  service. 

We  therefore  maintain  that  an  efficient  ministry  demands  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  265 

highest  standard   of  education   and   must   keep   step  with   the 
advance  of  general  learning. 

B. 

Our  second  question  is :  What  is  the  shaping  element  in  edu- 
cation which  fixes  the  standard  for  the  Christian  ministry? 

What  is  the  heart  of  Christian  education  and  what  must  be 
regarded  and  maintained  as  the  first  and  all-influencing  element 
in  ministerial  learning? 

The  positive  assurance  of  divine  revelation.  To  the  commis- 
sioned teacher,  sent  out  by  the  order  of  his  Lord  with  a  specific 
message  to  lead  and  change  the  world,  all  knowledge  arranges 
itself  clearly  under  three  subjects  : 

(1)  God.     (2)  Man.     (3)  Things. 

The  conscious  personal  Creator,  the  conscious  pergonal  creature 
who  responds  to  the  will  of  the  Creator,  and  the  subordinate 
world,  all  made  for  man,  given  to  him,  forfeited  by  him,  ruined 
with  him,  to  be  restored  to  him  according  to  the  revealed  plan  of 
the  Creator,  who  is  Redeemer. 

1.  Of  God  the  eternal,  unchangeable,  we  know.  As  Christian 
believers  we  start  with  absolute  certainty.  We  have  immovable 
and  unshadowed  infallibility.  We  have  knowledge,  not  theory, 
not  supposition.  Our  knowledge  is  not  the  presumption  of 
man's  finding  out,  but  the  gracious  revelation  of  God.  He  has 
declared  it.  He  has  sealed  it.  We  know  the  truth.  We  are 
called  to  the  truth.  We  are  baptized  into  the  truth.  We  rest 
in  the  truth.  We  live  by  the  truth,  and  we  are  sent  by  Him 
who  is  the  truth  to  give  the  truth,  the  gladness  of  the  world. 
This  truth  is  simply  the  will  of  God.  In  creation,  through  all 
history  to  the  final  purpose  we  know  the  will  of  God.  That  is 
the  truth  of  the  world.  That  will  of  God  was  fully  revealed  and 
fulfilled  in  Christ,  therefore  He  is  the  truth.  We  know  the 
whole  world ;  we  may  not  have  accurate  knowledge  of  the  details 
of  a  single  atom  in  it,  but  we  know  the  whole  as  related  to  God, 
to  us  and  to  final  destiny. 

"  This  is  life  eternal  that  they  should  know  Thee  the  only  true 
God  and  Him  whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ." 
"  Christ  is  made  to  us  wisdom." 


266  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

"In  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge." 
"  When  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into 
all  truth." 

This  Spirit  is  come ;  Pentecost  is  here. 

We  have  the  word  of  the  Spirit,  the  truth  of  God  in  Christ. 

2.  Of  Man  we  know  God's  record  and  God's  will.  We  know 
man's  creation,  fall,  redemption,  sanctification,  and  final  glory. 
In  his  changing  and  unstable  life,  we  know  the  highest  possi- 
bility, fixed  by  the  Unchangeable.  It  is  the  revealed  purpose  of 
God.  In  that  we  know  the  truth  in  man,  and  concerning  man. 
AVe  may  know  all  else  about  him  ;  not  knowing  that,  we  do  not 
know  the  truth.  We  may  be  ignorant  concerning  a  thousand 
things  about  man,  but  knowing  God's  will  concerning  him  in 
Christ,  we  know  the  truth.  You  know  your  friend.  You  do  not 
know  the  hairs  on  his  head,  or  the  bones  in  his  body,  but  you 
know  him.  The  scientific  fraternity  of  the  whole  university  may 
devote  a  lifetime  of  busiest  ingenuity  in  profoundest  learning  in 
accumulating  most  interesting  and  useful  facts  about  him  in 
zoology,  ethnology,  genealogy,  physiology,  chemistry,  anatomy, 
biology,  psychology,  philosophy,  history  and  literature,  and  yet 
all  that  accumulation  will  never  make  up  your  knowledge  of 
him.  They  know  trutlis  about  him.  You  know  God's  purpose 
with  him  ;  you  know  the  truth  about  him 

3.  In  the  confused  and  broken  realm  of  things  we  know  tlie 
truth.  We  see  a  meaning  in  them  only  as  we  discover  the  will 
or  purpose  of  God.  God  is  all  in  all.  If  we  know  God's  will 
and  order  in  the  chemical  combinations,  we  know  the  beautiful 
truth  of  chemistry.  If  we  know  God's  will  in  the  order  of  the 
worlds  in  their  inter-attraction,  motion  and  relation,  we  know  the 
truths  of  astronomy.  If  we  know  God's  will  in  the  processes  of 
life,  we  know  the  truth  of  biology.  We  know  that  the  great 
truth  of  the  world  is  one.  There  is  one  will  of  God  controlling 
in  the  one  plan  or  type  running  through  the  universe.  Men  may 
call  the  broken  suggestions  of  God's  will  in  things  truths,  but  it 
is  the  one  will  or  purpose  that  is  the  truth.  The  glittering 
mountain-top  reflects  the  sun  from  unnumbered  facets ;  the  ocean 
throws  back  myriad  flashes  of  his  out-poured  radiance ;  every 
crystal,  prism,  leaf  or  blade,  flower  or  stone,  gives  some  new  pic- 


PROCEEDINGS  OP  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  2()7 

ture  of  His  work  ;  yea,  even  the  muddy  little  pool  grasps  the 
image,  and  claims  to  hold  the  King  of  our  world  ;  but  none  of 
these,  nor  all  of  them  together,  make  up  the  sun.  No  more  can 
all  tlie  gathered  little  truths  of  human  learning  in  things  make 
up  the  truth  of  the  whole  will  and  purpose  of  our  God.  "Hath 
not  God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of  the  world  ?  For  seeing  that, 
in  the  wisdom  of  God,  the  Avorld  through  its  wisdom  knew  not 
God,  it  was  God's  good  pleasure,  through  the  foolishness  of  the 
preaching,  to  save  them  that  believe." 

We  know  that  truth  is  personal.  The  secret  of  the  world  is 
what  the  personal  God  purposes  in  the  world.  This  will  has  a 
personal  object.  It  is  directed  to  a  person,  man.  It  shows  itself 
in  things,  but  it  shows  itself  to  man.  Can  person  ever  find  truth 
in  things  that  will  satisfy  person  ?  You  may  apostrophize  beauties 
and  powers  in  nature,  but  that  means  only  addressing  in  them, 
or  through  them,  a  fancied  or  a  real  person  The  soul  of  man 
finds  rest  only  in  person  that  answers  to  its  personal  cry.  "As 
the  hart  panteth  after  water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after 
Thee,  O  God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living  God." 
Not  for  an  abstraction  called  a  truth,  but  for  the  living  Reality, 
the  Truth.  And  behold  the  blessed  assurance  of  the  word, 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,"  that  is  personal,  and  ultimately  "  He  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied."  When  man  gains  his 
full  rest  in  the  living  Truth — the  living  Truth,  even  God  the 
Saviour,  shall  be  satisfied,  and  in  some  sense  have  rest  in  him. 

Distinctively  Christian  education  starts  with  these  fundamental 
points  in  our  standard :  (1.)  Christian  revelation  gives  us  the 
truth.  We  know  and  are  to  teach  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the 
world.  (2.)  All  learning  about  the  world  and  things  in  the 
world  must  subordinate  itself  to  this  truth. 

What  learning,  without  tlie  revelation  of  God,  can  do  for  man 
we  have  discovered  in  the  history  of  Babylon,  Egypt,  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  we  keep  learning  the  same  sad  lesson  as  universities  try  to 
get  from  under  the  influence  of  the  teaching  that  gave  thorn  birth. 

Paul  met  the  learning  of  the  day  among  the  Greeks,  the  reach 
for  something  new"  in  the  field  of  guessing,  trying  to  piece  together 
the  sun  out  of  mud-puddle  reflections.     How  did   he  meet  it? 


268  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

"The  unknown  God,  Him  declare  I  unto  you."  No  theory,  but 
a  certified  declaration.  Soniethinj^  new?  Yea,  verily,  something 
renewing,  regenerating  in  the  field  of  certainty.  "I  determined 
to  know  nothing  among  you  but  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 
Ministers  in  Paul's  line  must  be  certain,  and  they  must  make 
others  certain.  Paul  told  Timothy:  "I  know  whom  I  have  be- 
lieved," and  taught  Timothy  to  know  and  to  bring  the  world  out 
of  the  darkness  of  guessing  into  the  light  of  knowing. 

Our  position  is  that  religious  conviction  must  shape  all  our 
teaching.  To  prepare  our  ministers  we  must  have  in  our  schools 
teachers  who  themselves  are  thoroughly  convinced  of  tlie  truth, 
not  beating  the  air.  Therefore  while  our  liberal  education  will 
include  a  wide  knowledge  of  all  the  range  of  human  studies  in 
the  univer.-^ity  coui-se,  the  ministerial  standard  will  always  classify 
all  this  knowledge  under  the  certainty  of  the  knowledge  we  have 
from  God  concerning  the  sum  of  all  things.  The  seminary  idea 
must  stand  above  the  university  idea,  as  life  stands  ab')ve  physi- 
ology, anatomy  and  chemistry. 

This  nuiy  at  first  appear  to  be  very  close  to  the  hierarchical  rule 
of  doing  all  judging  and  interpreting  by  the  appointed  authori- 
ties. When  we  discarded  the  idea  of  papal  infallibility  we 
surely  did  not  mean  that  we  have  something  less.  Equally  cei'- 
tain  it  is  that  we  did  not  intend  to  accept  the  infallibility  of 
private  judgment  in  all  teaching,  making  every  person  a  pope, 
nmltiplying  the  papal  absui'dity  by  the  myriads  of  the  human 
race.  Nor  did  we  intend  to  accept  the  iufallil)ility  of  the  brilliant 
specialist  with  his  generalizations  in  learned  guesses  of  theory. 
The  infallibility  of  the  professor's  chair  is  only  a  little  more  pre- 
sumptuous tlian  the  inf;illil)ility  of  the  papal  throne.  The  infal- 
libility we  accept  is  that  of  God's  revelation  in  His  "Word. 
Accepting  tluit,  we  teach  it  and  wc  traiu  ministers  in  it  and  send 
them  out  to  teach  it,  and  do  not  send  them  out  unless  they 
solemnly  vow  that  they  will  teach  it.  Of  course  tluit  binds  them, 
but  it  is  to  the  solid  truth  that  makes  them  free.  The  force  of 
gravity  binds  you  to  the  earth,  but  only  to  give  stability  to  your 
free  action  and  firmness  to  your  freedom.  Is  there  less  liberty  in 
the  sturdy  march  of  the  conquering  hero  than  in  the  aimless, 
aerial  bobbing  of  the  thistle-down? 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  2G9 

We  are  bound,  not  by  the  fetters  of  slavery,  but  by  the  bonds 
of  saving  love ;  not  tied  down  to  the  narrow,  but  held  up  to  the 
infinite,  our  liberty  safe,  and  our  field  unbounded.  The  danger 
we  fear  in  the  rocking  and  swaying  standards  of  varying  univer- 
sity education,  is  that  even  Christian  men  maybe  made  uncertain 
of  the  one  thing  sure. 

As  men  awake  to  the  folly  of  claiming  infallibility  for  any 
thing  of  human  invention  they  ridicule  the  teaching  that  unerr- 
ing truth  can  be  had  from  any  source.  Every  subject  is  to  be 
left  open.  The  ideal  cap  of  liberty  is  Sam  Weller's  hat,  all  open. 
Because  somebody's  roof  leaks  everybody's  house  must  be  torn 
down.     The  ideal  palace  is  the  open  air. 

On  that  fatal  night  there  was  something  open  in  the  dam  on 
the  Coneraaugh,  and  Johnstown  was  swept  away.  It  is  the  inde- 
terminate, the  undecided,  the  indefinite  in  the  education  of  our 
day  that  leaves  the  flood-gates  of  destruction  open.  When  men 
of  brilliant  gifts  and  abundant  reading  can  be  caught  in  the 
muddy  flood  of  Spiritism,  Christian  Science  and  Theosophy  some 
things  in  their  education  have  been  left  open  that  should  have 
been  closed.  "Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  have 
become  fools,"  and  are  wretched  slaves,  and  ye  plain  believers 
"  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  and 
ye  are  to  make  the  world  free,  even  the  learned  world. 

REMARKS. 

Prof.  J.  R.  DiMM,  D.D.,  after  the  reading  of  the  two  papers  on 
"  Standard  of  Ministerial  Education,"  said : — 

1.  The  Synods,  by  their  power  of  ordination,  hold  the  door  of 
entrance  to  the  Gospel  ministry. 

2.  The  Synods  alone  can  and  do  set  and  maintain,  as  far  as  it  is,  the 
standard  of  ministerial  education. 

3.  Colleges  have  more  trouble  with  Synods,  in  keeping  up  the 
standard,  than  they  have  with  the  students. 

4.  Colleges  often  incur  the  displeasure  of  parents,  pastors  and  edu- 
cational committees,  when  they  report  to  them  the  delinquencies  of 
beneficiaries. 

Eev.  Prof.  J.  Fry,  D.  D.,  said :— I  look  at  this  matter  in  a  practical 
way,  and  my  experience  as  a  teacher  has  convinced  me  the  most  seri- 
ous lack  with  many  applicants  for  admission  into  the  seminary,  is  in 
their  primary  education.     Even  in  the  matter  of  correct  spelling,  and 


270  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  formation  of  sentences  according  to  the  common  rules  of  grammar, 
some  are  surprisingly  deficient.  The  lack  is  not  so  much  in  their  col- 
lege studies  as  in  their  primary  instruction,  and  the  question  is  not  so 
.much  what  shall  be  the  standard  of  admission  into  our  theological 
seminaries,  as  into  our  colleges.  Reference  has  been  made  to  the 
importance  of  their  familiarity  with  the  Augsburg  Confession,  but  we 
find  that  many  who  come  to  the  seminary  are  not  familiar  even  with 
their  catechism,  and  cannot  give  the  proper  answer  to  such  questions 
as,  AVhat  is  Baptism,  or,  What  is  Luther  s  explanation  of  the  second 
article  of  the  Creed?  Something  should  be  done  to  correct  these 
defects  in  early  education  before  they  are  admitted  into  college  classes. 
Dr.  ScHOLL  said:— In  all  the  learned  professions  the  demand  is  for 
thoroughly  qualified  men.  Our  best  institutions  have  learned  to  place 
the  emphasis  at  the  jight  point.  Some  time  since  a  gentleman  of  more 
than  average  ability,  who  had  already  taken  the  degrees  of  A.  B.  and 
M.  D.  in  institutions  of  good  standing,  sought  entrance  in  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  with  the  view  of  taking  a  post-graduate  course  in 
medicine.  He  could  not  matriculate  because  he  had  failed  to  take  the 
elementary  course  in  chemistry  and  biology  and  was  accordingly 
referred  to  the  under-graduate  department  of  the  University  for  the 
acquisition  of  those  branches  of  learning. 

Here  we  have  a  good  example  to  follow  in  the  matter  of  ministerial 
education.  We  cannot  be  too  careful  in  laying  the  foundation.  The 
standard  for  admission  into  both  college  and  seminary  needs  to  be 
raised.  The  times  demand  it,  and  we  cannot  afibrd  to  be  indiflcrent 
on  this  point  if  our  men  are  to  maintain  a  creditable  position  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Gospel  ministry. 

Rev.  W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr.,  asked  whether  it  was  not  time  for  the 
Lutheran  Church  to  adopt  a  system  of  beneficiary  education  in  her 
institutions  in  which  merit  alone  should  be  the  gauge.  He  advocated 
scholarships  established  by  the  Synods,  to  be  dispensed  by  the  Synods 
or  the  faculty,  and  on  the  basis  of  an  educational  test  or  examination. 
He  saw  no  reason  why  men  should  be  pushed  into  the  ministry. 

Dr.  ScHANTZ  objected  that  as  long  as  the  Synods  had  no  such 
scholarships,  it  could  not  dispense  them.  He  maintained  that 
unworthy  and  incapable  men  were  being  dropped,  that  the  standard 
had  been  raised,  and  that  students  should  receive  no  assistance  prior 
to  the  sophomore  year. 

Dr.  Chas.  S.  Albert  said:— After  having  listened  to  the  sharp 
criticisms  of  the  intellectual  standing  of  the  ministry,  we  feel  that  it 
would  not  be  fair  to  close  this  discussion  without  emphasizing  the 
other  side.     We  are  inclined  to  be  optimistic  in  this  matter.     The 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  271 

papers  of  marked  ability,  the  presence  of  so  many  intelligent  listeners 
of  our  ministry  indicate  the  high  standard  of  ministerial  education 
prevailing  with  us.  Our  knowledge  of  our  younger  ministers  con- 
vinces us  that  an  unusual  number  of  able  and  scholarly  men  are  being 
nurtured,  who  will  be  leaders  of  whom  we  need  not  be  asliamed  at  no 
distant  day.  There  is  an  intellectual  quickening,  the  thrill  of  which 
is  felt  throughout  our  whole  ministry.  There  is  a  demand  by  our  laity 
for  the  literature  of  their  Church,  because  they  are  alive  to  its  great- 
ness and  the  richness  of  its  truth.  This  demand  must  accrue  to  the 
intellectual  stimulation  of  our  ministry.  Such  people  will  demand 
thoughtful  and  scholarly  preachers  who  in  turn  will  be  inspired  to  do 
better  work,  because  of  the  recognition  of  their  labors  by  their  people. 

Dr.  Krotel  added  a  word  in  the  same  strain.  He  recalled  the 
state  of  affairs  in  the  Church  fifty  years  ago  and  took  courage.  Won- 
derful progress  had  been  made.  He  believed  in  beneficiary  education. 
Fault  may  often  be  found  with  our  institutions,  but  they  have  done  a 
great  work.  We  may  learn  a  lesson  from  Uncle  Sam.  He  supports 
two  institutions,  one  at  Annapolis  and  another  at  West  Point,  and  .has 
a  large  number  of  beneficiaries,  and  though  often  blamed  for  extrava- 
gance, the  standard  insisted  on  is  high  and  we  have  to  thank  him  for 
training  so  fine  a  race  of  beneficiaries  as  that  which  recently  gave  us 
our  victory  over  Spain.  The  fault  lies  not  in  the  beneficiary  system, 
but  in  the  standard.     Keep  up  the  standard. 

Dr.  Parson  suggested  that  the  only  way  in  which  to  raise  the 
standard  was  to  move  back  and  begin  early. 

Rev.  F.  A.  Kahler  repudiated  the  idea  that  the  standard  of  educa- 
tion in  the  ministry  was  lower  than  that  in  the  other  learned  professions. 

Rev.  Kahler  said :  My  paper  was  not  calculated  to  call  iforth  dis- 
cussion.    The  purpose  was  simply : 

First,  to  restate  a  few  of  the  reasons  why  a  minister  must  not  be 
satisfied  with  anything  short  of  the  highest  standard  of  education, 
compared  with  the  standard  of  all  the  learned  professions  of  the  uni- 
versity ;  why  our  standard  must  continually  rise ;  and  why  we  must  be 
more  rigid  in  our  demands  for  a  learned  ministry. 

Secondly,  to  show  that  the  claim  for  knowledge  received  from  reve- 
lation is  the  highest.  That  we  have  authority  for  knowledge,  where 
human  investigation  apart  from  revelation  has  only  hypotkesis  or 
changing  theory.  That  the  seminary  is  above  the  university.  That 
Christ's  messengers  are  to  lead  the  university  to  knowledge,  not  to  be 
led  by  the  university  to  theory.  That  Paul  came  to  Athens  not  to 
learn  from  the  teachers  of  the  world,  but  to  teach  the  ignorance  of  the 
greatest  human  learning,  the  wisdom  of  God's  revelation  in  Christ. 


272  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  AND   MODERN  RELIGIOUS  ISSUES 
IN   GERMANY. 

BY   A.    G.    VOIGT,   D.D. 

Religious  issues  are  not  identical  with  religions  problems. 
Many  problems  are  investigated  without  ever  leading  to  contro- 
versy. Germany  is  the  country  for  the  discovery  of  theological 
problems,  and  for  their  solution. 

The  Cliurch  in  Germany  has  also  great  practical  problems  to 
solve,  which  are  closely  akin  to  the  religious  issues.  What  is  the 
proper  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  abnormal  social  condi- 
tions? What  shall  be  the  method  of  counteracting  the  great 
estrangement  of  the  masses  from  the  Church  ?  Should  ''  evan- 
gelization "  be  encouraged?  What  attitude  shall  the  Church 
take  towards  the  intruding  sects?  These,  and  similar  practical 
questions,  are  of  no  less  importance  to  the  life  of  the  Church 
than  the  existing  religious  issues.  But  it  does  not  lie  wdtliin  the 
scope  of  this  paper  to  discuss  these  practical  problems. 

We  are  to  limit  ourselves  to  the  religious  issues.  By  religious 
issues  we  understand  those  great  agitated  questions  which  involve 
either  the  being  or  well-being  of  the  Church.  These  issues  are 
essentially  the  same  in  Germany  as  in  England  and  America. 
For  they  arise  from  the  relations  of  Christianity  to  modern  life 
and  thought,  which  are  essentially  the  same  in  spirit  and  tendency 
in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  If  there  is  any  difference  in 
the  relation  of  the  Lutheran  Church  to  modern  religious  issues 
in  Germany  and  in  this  country,  it  is  the  degree  to  which  the 
Church  has  been  affected  by  the  modern  spirit  in  the  two  coun- 
tries. The  living  issues  of  to-day  in  Germany  may  become  ours 
to-morrow.     Tiiis  is  where  our  interest  in  this  matter  lies. 

It  is  not  easy  to  single  out  particular  issues  in  the  religious  life 
of  Germany,  for  the  conflict  rages  through  the  whole  field  of  re- 
ligious thought.  There  is  really  but  one  great  issue  for  the 
Lutheran  Church,  and  that  involves  the  whole  system  of  faith. 
If  the  modern  spirit  prevails  in  theology,  even  the  Small  Cate- 
chism will  have  to  go  out  of  the  Church.     This  is  an  age  of  re- 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  273 

construction  iu  theology.  The  issues  are  not  concerning  the 
correction  or  clearer  definition  or  fuller  explication  of  particular 
parts  of  Christian  teaching.  The  whole  conception  of  Christianity 
is  to  be  revolutionized. 

It  may  sound  like  an  exaggeration,  but  we  think  close  reflec- 
tion will  sustain  the  assertion  that  the  issue  which  modern  thought 
has  pressed  upon  the  Church  is  greater  than  that  of  the  Refor- 
mation. It  is  not  attended  by  so  great  an  agitation  of  men's 
minds.  For  the  change  in  thought  that  is  in  progress  has  been 
proceeding  more  quietly  and  gradually.  Nevertheless  the  revo- 
lution in  Christian  thought  that  is  now  confronting  the  Church 
is  vaster  than  that  of  the  Reformation.  The  reformed  theology 
of  the  sixteenth  century  allowed  a  large  part  of  the  traditional 
dogma  of  the  Church  to  stand  intact.  The  product  of  the  religious 
thought  of  the  preceding  centuries,  as  it  had  crystallized  in  the 
great  dogmas  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  of  the  trinity,  of  the  per- 
son and  natures  of  Christ,  and  of  the  vicarious  atonement,  was 
accepted  by  the  Reformers,  and  has  been  transmitted  in  the 
Lutheran  Church  to  us.  Now  all  this  is  to  be  changed.  Since 
the  days  of  Schleiermacher  a  reconstruction  has  been  gradually 
going  on,  which  does  not  stop  even  at  the  simple  basis  of  Christian 
faith  in  the  Apostles'  Creed.  When,  a  few  years  ago,  the  heated 
controversy  concerning  the  Apostolicum  blazed  up,  the  mind  of 
Germany  was  awakened  to  the  vast  extent  of  the  religious  change 
in  progress.  And  when  now  it  is  unhesitatingly  argued  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  never  intended  to  be  observed  as  a  rite  in  the 
Church,  it  is  manifest  what  a  break  with  the  whole  course  of 
religious  life,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Church,  is  being  con- 
summated. It  is  reconstruction  from  the  bottom.  The  founda- 
tion stones  of  traditional  Christian  belief  are  torn  up,  eitlier  to 
make  room  for  something  else,  or,  at  least,  to  be  relaid  in  different 
order. 

If  we  are  not  mistaken  in  our  analysis  of  present  trends  of 
thought,  there  are  three  factors  especially  at  work  in  producing 
the  gradual  transformation  of  religious  views  in  the  present  age : 
1.  Aversion  to  intellectual  religion;  2.  Subjectivism;  3,  The 
scientific  spirit. 
18 


274  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

To  speak  of  an  aversion  to  intellectual  religion  in  this  intel- 
lectual age  may  sound  paradoxical.  But  the  fact  remains. 
Schlciermacher  properly  interpreted  the  mind  of  the  nineteenth 
century  when  he  declared  religion  Avas  feeling.  Whether  it  be 
because  the  age  has  been  intellectually  overstrained  and  seeks 
relief  in  religion  in  another  direction  or  whatever  the  cause,  there 
is  a  very  decided  tendency  to  value  that  alone  in  religions,  which 
bears  directly  on  the  feelings  and  the  will.  The  religious  spirit 
of  the  times  is  ethical,  and  not  speculative  or  mystical.  Hence 
we  observe  the  inclination  to  eliminate  or  at  least  reduce  the  intel- 
lectual elements  of  religion.  Our  dogmatic,  it  is  said,  miist  become 
shorter.  Hence  the  strong  opposition  to  everything  "metaphysi- 
cal "  (as  it  is  termed)  in  Christianity  as  a  product  of  Greek 
thought  and  not  of  genuine  Christianity  as  originally  given. 
Hence  also  the  constant  charge  of  intellectualism  against  old 
Lutheran  orthodoxy. 

Co-operative  with  this  anti-intellectual  tendency  is  the  preva- 
lent subjectivism,  which  estimates  religious  truth  by  the  standard 
of  personal  experience.  Hence  so  much  is  said  about  Werhirteile, 
judgments  of  value.  That  Avhich  we  recognize  as  of  religious 
value  in  our  personal  experience  is  to  be  accepted  as  the  truth. 
"Whatever  does  not  come  within  our  personal  experience  is  to  be 
treated  as  unessential  or  problematic. 

And  with  this  subjectivism  concurs  the  predominant  method  of 
science.  Modern  science  demands  facts,  and  facts  are  furnished 
by  experience.  Hence  the  disposition  to  limit  the  sphere  of 
knowable  truth  to  experience,  and  to  pass  by,  if  not  to  deny,  that 
which  is  transcendental.  In  accordance  with  this  method  of 
science  theology  is  likely  to  become  a  science  of  those  peculiar 
facts  of  inner  experience  which  are  denominated  "religious."  In 
order  to  estimate  the  facts  of  experience,  science  labors  to  discover 
certain  relations  and  connections  between  them,  which  it  calls 
laws.  The  one  kind  of  connection  between  facts  that  is  of  special 
interest  to  science  at  the  present  time  is  that  which  tells  how 
things  came  to  be  as  they  are.  The  genetic  and  evolutionary 
method  of  science  applied  to  Christianity  most  seriously  affects  its 
historical  basis. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  275 

Now  this  entire  modern  way  of  looking  at  things  is  at  variance 
with  old  Lutheran  orthodoxy.  The  traditional  dogma  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  was  developed  under  the  operation  of  none  of 
the  three  factors  just  traced.  The  old  orthodoxy  was  strongly 
intellectual.  It  estimated  truth  not  by  inner  experience,  but  by 
the  objective  revelation  given  in  the  Bible.  Its  method  was  not 
genetic,  but  rather  that  of  tabulating  articles  of  belief. 

Here  now  we  have  the  conflict  between  the  traditional  and  the 
modern.  It  is  a  conflict  that  ploughs  far  below  the  surface  to 
the  subsoil  of  religion.  Shall  the  traditional  be  maintained  just 
as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  without  any  correlation  to  modern 
thought?  Some  would  perhaps  fain  do  so.  But  they  are  few. 
Or  shall  the  traditional  be  wholly  cast  aside  and  a  "  new  dogma" 
be  evolved  ?  This  has  been  demanded  by  some.  Or  shall  the 
issue  be  met  by  concessions  to  the  modern  spirit  and  by  partial 
reconstructions  of  the  theology  of  the  Church  ?  This  is  the  course 
of  the  large  majority  of  conservatives.  The  last  is  the  way  not 
only  of  reason,  but  of  safety.  It  must  be  confessed  there  is  some 
reason  in  the  anti-intellectual,  ethical  religious  tendency  and  in 
the  subjectivism  of  the  age,  and  there  is  real  progress  in  knowl- 
edge in  modern  scientific  methods.  Moreover,  it  is  not  safe,  but 
very  perilous,  to  defend  untenable  positions. 

Passing  from  these  general  considerations  on  the  tendencies  of 
the  age  to  special  phases  of  religious  controversy,  we  observe  that 
the  realistic,  not  to  say  materialistic  trend  of  thought  makes  the 
very  existence  of  Christianity  an  issue.  The  danger  here  is  not 
so  much  from  direct  assaults  upon  Christianity  as  from  a  process 
of  disintegration  and  undermining.  Much  of  the  hostility  to 
Christianity  is  probably  unconscious,  but  this  makes  it  none  the 
less  dangerous.  The  predominant  interest  in  natural  science,  the 
assumi)tion  that  material  things  are  the  only  realities,  at  least  the 
only  realities  we  can  know  anything  about,  and  the  excessive 
valuation  in  practical  life  of  the  goods  of  this  world  all  tend  to 
produce  an  indifference  to  the  si)iritual  truths  of  Christianity  and 
an  alienation  of  both  cultured  and  uncultured  classes  from  the 
Church. 

Professor  Lemme,  the  writer  on  Apologetic  in  the  new  "  Real 


276  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Encyclopajdia,"  edited  by  Hauck,  says:  "  If  ever  a  time  stood  in 
need  of  a  thorough  apologetic,  present-day  Christianity  has  that 
need.  For  it  must  carry  on  the  conflict,  not  only  with  the  extra- 
Christian  religions,  but  it  sees  a  new  heathenism  arise  in  its  own 
midst  to  an  extent  never  seen,  and  with  iutellectual  resources 
never  witnessed  before." 

When  we  now  inquire.  How  is  Christianity  prepared  to  meet 
this  issue  that  involves  its  very  existence,  w^e  cannot  answer  in  any 
triumphant  mood.  Modern  theology  is  weak  against  auti-Chris- 
tiau  forces,  because  it  has  adapted  itself  to  the  empirical  and 
agnostic  philosophy  of  the  times.  In  order  to  win  back  the  alien- 
ated classes,  there  is  a  disposition  to  follow  them  in  their  agnostic 
trend  of  thought  and  to  remove,  as  much  as  possible,  the  antago- 
nisms between  the  religion  of  Christ  and  the  culture  of  the  age. 
Where  does  the  most  recent  apologetic  of  Christianity  take  its 
stand?  The  writer  just  quoted  gives  us  the  answer:  "It  lies  in 
the  nature  of  the  modern  tendency  in  theology  that  it  surrenders 
the  objective  theoretic  proof  for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and 
confines  itself  to  this,  to  offer  Christianity  to  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual needs,  under  certain  subjective  presuppositions  given  in 
the  intellectual  life  of  Christendom ;  or  it  retires  to  the  position 
that  in  spite  of  modern  science  religious  faith  in  God  can  still  be 
maintained." 

We  have  called  this  concession  to  the  empirical  philosophy  of 
the  age  an  element  of  weakness  in  modern  theology.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  a  source  of  strength  in  traditional  Lutlieranism 
that  it  defends  Christianity  on  the  basis  of  objective  facts  given 
in  a  revelation.  It. presents  something  to  be  believed,  and  not  only 
something  to  be  inwardly  felt  and  experienced.  Christianity  can- 
not be  maintained  upon  the  sole  ground  that  it  is  a  matter  of  per- 
sonal inner  experience,  and  that  this  is  its  vindication.  Every 
illusion  is  also  a  matter  of  personal  inner  experience.  The  his- 
torical and  metaphysical  basis  of  Christianity,  which  the  Lutheran 
Church  never  will  surrender  as  long  as  it  is  true  to  itself,  must 
furnish  the  guarantee  of  victory  over  the  empirical  j^hilosophy  of 
this  century. 

The  efibrt  within  the  Church  to  adapt  itself  to  the  i:>revalent 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  277 

thought  of  the  age  has  raised  an  issue  as  to  what  is  genuine 
Christianity,  The  traditional  dogma  of  the  Church  is  believed 
by  many  to  be  no  true  representation  of  it.  Hence  an  undog- 
matic  Christianity  or  a  new  dogma  is  to  satisfy  the  mind  that 
takes  no  interest  in  the  traditional  teaching  of  the  Church  and  to 
bring  to  it  the  genuine  original  Christianity  of  Christ  without 
accretions  and  malformation. 

In  order  to  bring  this  genuine  Christianity  to  light  not  even 
the  teachings  of  the  apostles  are  to  be  received  as  genuine  pre- 
sentations of  the  religion  of  Christ  Avithout  scrutiny  and  qualifica- 
tion. Not  only  the  accretions  of  the  traditional  Church  dogma, 
but  the  personal  views  of  the  apostles  are  to  be  peeled  off  in  order 
to  get  down  to  the  genuine  Christianity  of  Christ.  But  the  pro- 
cess of  sifting  and  scaling  is  not  to  stop  even  at  the  acknowledged 
words  of  Christ.  Out  of  His  accepted  sayings  His  consciousness  is 
to  be  analyzed,  and  whatever  in  it  is  found  to  be  merely  a  belief 
or  view  of  His  times,  is  also  to  be  peeled  off. 

An  illustration  of  what  this  process  of  penetrating  to  the  kernel 
of  the  real  religion  of  Christ  involves,  is  given  in  the  article  on 
Demoniacs,  by  Joh.  "Weiss,  in  the  new  "  Real  Encyclopedia."  He 
says:  "Jesus  believed  not  only  in  the  existence  of  demons,  but 
also  in  the  possibility  of  exorcism  like  His  contemporaries."  But 
when  the  writer  declares  his  judgment  on  demoniacs,  he  says : 
"  For  the  biblicistic  orthodoxy  the  insuperable  difficulty  exists  of 
perceiving  that  the  mea  of  the  New  Testament,  especially  Jesus, 
stood  on  this  question  at  the  religious  and  scientific  standpoint  of 
their  time,  from  which  we  have  been  for.ced  away  by  the  world- 
picture  of  modern  natural  science."  Then  we  learn:  "Inasmuch 
as  we  theologians  are  no  competent  judges  of  the  existing  psychical 
facts,  we  nmst  accept  instruction  from  the  physicians."  From 
this  it  appears  that  Jesus  also  was  "no  competent  judge  of  the 
existing  psychical  facts,"  and  that  His  "self-consciousness"  is  to 
be  regulated  and  corrected  by  modern  science. 

Now  whatever  corrections  in  its  traditional  theology  the 
Lutheran  Church  will  accept,  it  will  not  suffer  corrections  in  the 
religious  teaching  of  Christ,  nor  even  of  His  apostles.  Nor, 
knowing  that  its  old  dogma  is  based  upon  the  writings  of  the 


278  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

apostles,  will  it  ever  cast  it  aside  for  a  new  dogma.  But  mean- 
time the  controversy  between  old  faith  and  new  faith  (for  such  it 
is,  and  not  only  a  controversy  between  old  theology  and  new 
theology)  must  go  on  in  the  Lutheran  Church;  and  to  maintain 
itself  and  its  old  dogma  the  Church  must  bring  its  theology  into 
right  relations  to  the  advancing  historical  and  scientific  know- 
ledge of  the  age.  Here  is  the  source  of  difficult  questions  that 
must  be  met  in  the  spirit  of  fair  and  honest  inquiry.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  it  is  not  the  wish  to  change  the  confession  of 
tlie  Church,  that  has  begotten  the  modern  attempts  to  reconstruct 
the  system  of  faith.  It  is  the  desire  to  bring  that  confession  into 
correct  relations  to  modern  thought  and  knowledge.  The  sin- 
cerity of  the  effort,  of  course,  does  not  correct  its  errors.  Nor 
should  the  errors  of  many  deter  the  Church  from  performing  the 
necessary  task  of  proving  that  in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge 
its  system  of  faith  preserves  and  presents  the  truth  of  genuine 
Christianity.  Rocholl  says,  trul}^  in  a  recent  essay:  "Theology 
must  keep  in  touch  with  the  general  science  that  surrounds  it." 

The  issue  as  to  what  constitutes  genuine  Christianity  is  almost 
the  same  as  the  issue  concerning  the  "historical  Christ,"  of  whom 
so  mucli  is  now  said.  It  is  fondly  believed  that  this  is  the  Christ 
whom  our  age  needs  and  will  accept.  But  it  is  a  grave  question 
whetlier  even  the  most  modernized  Christianity  will  be  accepta- 
ble to  the  modern  spirit  of  the  large  numbers  who  have  been 
alienated  from  the  Church.  A  still  graver  question  is  whether 
with  the  "historical  Christ"  the  essential  truth  of  Christianity  is 
not  sacrificed.  We  remember  what  Luther  said  of  tlie  Christ  of 
Zwingli's  Allffiosis :  "  I  would  not  like  to  be  a  Christian  after 
him."  The  same  can  with  propriety  be  said  of  the  "historical 
Christ."  What  is  the  "  historical  Christ?"  It  is  not  easy  to  de- 
line,  because  the  thing  itself  is  somewhat  vague.  Is  it  the  Christ 
of  the  Gospels?  By  no  means.  For  this  Christ  is  to  stand  inde- 
pendent of  whatever  criticism  may  make  of  the  Gospels.  To  get 
at  the  idea  of  the  historical  Christ,  we  must  first  cut  off  all  that 
is  not  historical,  that  is,  all  that  pertains  to  pre-existence  and 
post-existence.  Now  whatever  idea  of  the  person  of  Christ  the 
modern  theologian  forms  of  Him  within  these  historical  limits, 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  279 

that  is  the  "historical  Christ."  The  Lutheran  Church  must 
have  something  more  than  the  "historical  Christ"  as  the  founda- 
tion of  its  faith.  For  this  reason  conservative  Lutheran  theology 
has  for  years  waged  unceasing  warfare  against  the  "  historical 
Christ,"  and  has  stood  out  for  the  pre-existeuce  of  our  Lord  with 
all  that  it  involves  of  metaphysical  theology. 

Inseparably  connected  with  the  controversy  about  the  "  his- 
torical Christ  "  is  the  issue  as  to  the  basis  of  Christian  certainty, 
and  the  principle  of  Christian  knowledge.  Old  Lutheran  the- 
ology answers :  The  Bible.  To  our  orthodox  fathers  the  authority 
of  the  Bible  was  absolute ;  its  declarations  were  the  source  of 
saving  knowledge,  and  guaranteed  the  certainty  of  Christian 
faith.  But  now  we  are  to  learn  that  this  was  not  the  Lutheran- 
isni  of  Luther.  For,  as  Harnack  says,  "  this  is  the  greatest  re- 
form which  Luther  instituted,  both  for  faith  and  theology,  that 
he  made  the  historical  Christ  the  only  principle  of  the  knowledge 
of  God."  The  historical  Christ  is  thus  brought  into  opposition 
to  the  Bible  as  the  source  of  Christian  knowledge. 

But  even  among  those  who  oppose  the  school  of  Ritschl  there 
is  a  want  of  agreement  on  the  question :  What  is  the  ultimate 
ground  of  Christian  certainty  ?  It  is  now  generally  recognized 
in  Germany  that  the  method  of  Christian  faith  is  not  first  to  be- 
come convinced  by  intellectual  arguments  of  the  truth  and  divine 
character  of  a  book,  and  then  to  submit  to  all  its  statements.  Xor 
was  this  the  method  of  the  seventeenth  century  orthodoxy,  although 
for  the  sake  of  antithesis  the  matter  is  so  represented.  But  it 
must  be  conceded  that  the  older  orthodoxy  did  not  value  Chris- 
tian experience  as  much  as  modern  theology.  It  is  now  gener- 
ally acknowledged  that  Christian  faith  lives  not  by  what  a  per- 
son knows  is  stated  in  the  Bible,  but  by  the  amount  of  truth 
inwardly  appropriated  in  inner  experience.  It  is  a  merit  of 
modern  theology  that  it  emphasizes  the  importance  of  actual 
living  faith.  In  this  there  is  general  agreement,  but  in  regard 
to  the  basis  of  Christian  faith  and  knowledge  there  is  a  want 
of  agreement.  The  conflict  here  is  between  three  different 
views. 

1,  Many  hold  fast  simply  to  the  old  orthodox  position,  that  the 


280  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

ground  of  Christian  certainty  and  knowledge  is  to  l)c  found  in 
the  declarations  of  the  Bible. 

2.  But  most  modern  theology  is  troubled  by  a  distinction  be- 
tween believing  in  the  Bible  and  believing  in  Christ,  Avhom  the 
Bible  declares.  A  dictum  of  Schleiermacher  is  regarded  as  fun- 
damental. He  says :  "  Respect  for  the  Holy  Scriptures  cannot 
be  the  basis  of  faith  in  Christ ;  rather  this  faith  must  be  presup- 
posed in  order  to  concede  a  special  respect  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures." There  is  a  false  antithesis  here,  for  Christ  caunot  be 
believed  in  except  through  tlie  -word  which  declares  Him. 
Nevertheless,  this  dictum  is  accepted  by  conservative  Lutherans, 
who  try  to  combine  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  with  inner 
experience  as  a  double  ground  of  certainty.  They  argue  from 
the  experience  of  faith  back  to  the  Bible  as  the  producing  cause, 
or,  if  not  directly  back  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  at  least  to  the 
Word  of  God,  which  is  in  the  Church,  and  which,  in  its  primary 
and  normal  form,  is  authenticated  in  the  writings  of  prophets 
and  apostles. 

3.  But  those  wdio  follow  the  teachings  of  Ritschl  try  to  build 
up  the  whole  structure  of  Christian  faith  on  the  foundation  of  an 
inner  experience  of  Christ,  thereby  escaping  from  the  principle 
of  authority  altogether;  or  if,  like  Kaftan,  they  recognize  the 
necessity  of  some  authority,  they  discover  it  not  in  the  Scriptures, 
but  in  an  ideal  Christ. 

The  dangers  of  this  third  view,  and  the  exaltation  of  inner 
experience,  also  contain  a  warning  for  those  who  combine  inner 
experience  with  the  Scriptures  as  the  ground  of  certainty  and  the 
principle  of  knowledge.  Kuebel  was  not  iar  wrong  when  he 
characterized  the  exaltation  of  inner  experience  into  the  position 
of  an  authority  as  Schwarmgeisierci.  The  position  is,  in  fact, 
akin  to  the  teaching  of  the  fanatics  of  the  Reformation  period, 
who  relied  absolutely  upon  their  iimer  revelations.  A  Chris- 
tianity that  has  nothing  under  it  but  an  inner  experience  has 
poor  underpinning.  Nor  can  there  be  any  assurance  of  the 
reality  of  the  operations  of  the  Christ  of  history  upon  our  hearts 
unless,  at  the  same  time,  the  history  of  Christ  is  assured  to  us, 
and  this  throws  us  back  again  upon  the  Scriptures.     Christianity 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  281 

based  upon  the  Bible  will,  of  course,  be  necessarily  exposed  to 
the  attacks  of  adverse  criticism.  But  this  danger  is  nothing 
compared  to  the  immense  peril  of  a  Christianity  that  has  only  a 
subjective  foundation.  Christianity  is  a  historical  religion.  If 
the  history  is  unfounded,  the  religion  founded  upon  it  cannot  and 
does  not  deserve  to  stand.  Not  what  we  experience  inwardly, 
even  under  the  influence  of  the  Word  of  God,  but  that  Word  of 
God  itself  as  the  producing  cause  of  our  faith,  is  the  ultimate 
source  of  our  Christian  knowledge  and  certainty. 

The  question  as  to  the  seat  of  authority  necessarily  leads  to  the 
issues  presented  by  modern  criticism  of  the  Bible.  One  school 
of  modern  theology  would  fain  make  the  preservation  of  Chris- 
tianity independent  of  the  results  of  criticism.  Let  criticism 
eliminate  whatever  it  may,  it  is  fondly  hoped  that  enough  of  the 
picture  of  Christ  will  remain  to  produce  the  overwhelming,  inspir- 
ing impression  which  is  the  experience  of  faith.  But  conserva- 
tive Lutherans  are  not  so  sanguine.  Shortly  before  his  death 
Dr.  Frank  expressed  his  apprehension:  "The  possibility  seems 
not  to  be  excluded  that  by  critical  investigations  the  evangelical 
picture  of  our  Redeemer  will  be  so  much  dissolved  and  decom- 
i:iosed  that  what  remains  of  it  will  be  no  longer  adapted  to  let 
Him  remain  the  centre  and  foundation  of  our  faith."  The  con- 
troversy about  the  Scriptures  involves  several  points,  their  his- 
torical correctness,  their  inspiration  and  their  normative  authority. 
Lack  of  time  forbids  us  to  dwell  upon  these  points.  We  limit 
ourselves  to  a  few  brief  general  remarks.  On  all  the  points  men- 
tioned there  is  a  general  weakening  on  the  conservative  Lutheran 
side.  Yet  it  may  safely  be  asserted  that  positive  Lutherans  will 
not  surrender  the  vital  positions  connected  with  the  historical 
accuracy,  the  inspiration  and  the  normative  authority  of  the 
Scriptuies.  But  meanwhile  there  is  great  uncertainty  as  to  the 
method  of  defence.  It  is  not  a  sign  of  strength  that  there  is  a 
general  disposition  to  fall  back  upon  the  so-called  testimony  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  ultimate  defence  of  the  Bible.  But  this 
is  in  a  line  with  the  prevailing  subjectivism.  The  battle  is  one 
of  historical  criticism  and  it  must  be  fought  to  a  victory  by  his- 
torical criticism.     It  is  a  more  hopeful  sign  that  theologians  like 


2S2  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Professor  Kocnig  point  out  the  necessity  of  bringing  forward  the 
external  arguments  for  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the 
books  of  the  Bible. 

It  is  characteristic  of  modern  theology  that  it  turns  its  atten- 
tion almost  exclusively  to  Christ.  It  is  but  natural,  therefore, 
that  the  traditional  and  modern  spirit  should  clash  in  regard  to 
the  central  doctrines  of  christology  and  the  atonement.  The  old 
doctrine  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ  is  a  stumbling  block  to 
modern  thought  and  is  set  aside.  Christ  is  regarded  from  the 
point  of  view  that  in  Him  is  a  self-revelation  of  God.  Is  He  then 
Himself  God?  It  is  hard  to  tell.  He  stands  in  unity  with  God, 
but  this  unity  is  one  of  will,  not  of  essence.  The  pre-existence 
of  Christ  is  virtually  denied.  The  atonement  is  ethically  con- 
ceived. His  life  and  death  are  valued  not  as  a  vicarious  offering 
making  a  reconciliation  with  God,  but  as  an  exhibition  of  the 
love  and  forgiveness  of  God.  Man  is  saved  by  faith  in  God,  and 
Christ's  life  and  death  are  the  divine  means  to  awaken  this  faith 
in  man. 

The  issue  here  presented  is  one  that  can  be  triumphantly  met 
as  long  as  conservative  theology  takes  its  stand  upon  the  New 
Testament.  For  it  will  require  more  ingenuity  and  critical  acute- 
ness  than  even  German  theologians  display  to  get  the  truth  of 
the  essential  divinity  of  Christ  out  of  the  Gospels  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  vicarious  atonement  out  of  the  epistles. 

And  on  the  whole  the  lover  of  old  Lutheran  theology  and  faith 
need  not  be  discouraged.  The  existing  religious  issues  make  us 
concerned,  but  not  despondent.  Much  injury  has  been  done  to 
the  faith  of  the  Church,  for  the  new  religious  views  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  universities.  The  modern  spirit  has  also  invaded  the 
pulpits,  the  catechetical  instruction  and  the  homes  of  the  laity. 
But  the  old  faith  still  has  its  able  defenders.  And  a  still  mightier 
conservative  force  than  the  learning  of  theologians  is  to  be  found 
in  the  devotional  literature  which  the  people  read  and  use  in 
church  and  home,  and  also  love.  The  liturgies  of  the  Church,  the 
hymns,  the  prayer-books  and  the  postils  are  all  saturated  with 
the  old  theology.  And  above  all,  the  Bible  is  still  in  the  hands 
of  reverent  people. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  283 


THE    LUTHERAN   CHURCH   AND   MODERN    RELIGIOUS    ISSUES 
IN   AMERICA. 

BY   T.  E.  SCHMAUK,  D.D. 

"The  Lutheran  Church"  is  the  Church  that  clings  to  salvation 
by  faith  alone;  and  to  its  corollary  that  each  individual  is  respon- 
sible unto  God  for  himself;  to  Scripture  as  the  one  rule  of  faith 
and  life,  the  one  determiner  of  theory  and  practice,  the  one  test 
of  doctrines  and  methods;  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Sou  of  the  living 
God,  manifest  in  the  flesh  for  the  removal  of  the  sin  of  the  world 
by  the  redemption  of  the  cross,  and  as  the  centre  and  the  radius 
of  Scripture ;  to  the  Law  which  commands  and  condemns,  and 
the  Gospel  which  offers  grace  and  pardon;  to  the  Word  and 
Sacraments  as  the  only  means  which  the  Holy  Spirit  uses  to  con- 
vince of  sin  and  work  faith ;  and  to  a  life  of  daily  repentance 
and  faith.  Wherever  men  together  cling  to  these  things,  there 
is  the  Lutheran  Church. 

"  Modern  religious  issues  in  America "  are  such  important 
positions  or  problems  in  theology  and  church-life,  or  in  the  mental 
attitude  of  thinkers  towards  either,  as  the  present  age  has  brought 
into  prominence  in  our  land.  By  implication  in  the  terms,  it  is 
clear  that  in  this  paper  the  Church  is  to  be  dealt  with  in  rela- 
tion to  issues  that  come  to  it  from  without,  and  that  internal 
issues,  such  as  the  race  and  language  question,  the  question  of 
fellowship  between  various  bodies  of  Lutherans,  the  questions  of 
the  Four  Points,  of  a  Common  Service,  the  Luther  League  ques- 
tion, etc.,  are  excluded,  except  in  so  far  as  they  have  lines  of 
contact  with  more  general  religious  issues  in  America. 

Few  or  none  of  the  latter  have  originated  in  our  Church. 
They  have  sprung  up,  as  a  rule,  from  the  wayside  seeds  of  radi- 
calism. For  many  of  them  no  church  is  responsible,  but  they 
have  germinated  outside  the  pale,  and  are  a  product  of  tlie  course 
of  history  and  of  the  times.  The  Church  is  not  to  be  held  to 
account  for  their  presence,  little  as  is  the  Sower  for  the  presence 
of  the  tares  ;  but  she  is  responsible  for  what  she  does  with  them. 
Modern   issues  that  have  not  been  imported  from  other  lands 


284  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

come  to  U3  largely  from  the  New  Englaud,  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist  Churches,  and  from  our  American  types  of  culture, 
literature  and  government.  For  in  America,  as  in  few  other 
countries,  issues  spring  from  the  current  fund  of  public  thought, 
and  in  turn  quickly  react  on  it. 


Underlying  the  issues  of  present  day  theology,  there  is  one 
fundamental  question.  The  Lutheran  Church  says,  Scripture  is 
the  only  rule  of  faith  and  life.  But  nearly  all  other  theology  is 
asking.  Where  does  Reason  come  in  ?  *  The  question  presents 
itself  to  us  in  very  different  aspects  from  those  in  which  it  ap- 
peared in  the  rationalism  of  the  last  century.  Since  then  the 
heart  of  every  great  contemplative  soul-scer,  from  Goethe  to  Ten- 
nyson and  Browning,  has  brooded  over  it;  the  soaring  wings  of  a 
latter-day  philosophy  have  extended,  the  keen  eyes  of  a  latter-day 
science  have  examined  it. 

The  whole  problem  entered  American  theology  by  way  of  re- 
action against  the  pressure  of  the  teaching  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 
After  some  preparatory  periods,  an  American  rebellion  of  reason 
was  developed  in  a  wide  and  revolutionary  w\ay  by  Emerson,  and 
in  a  more  limited  theological  sphere  by  Horace  Bushnell.  Under 
its  general  influence  Longfellow,  Channing,  Whittier,  Holmes, 
Bryant,  Stedman,  Warner,  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  and  a  host 
of  essayists  and  modern  religious  society  novelists  have  contributed 
to  the  diff\ision  of  liberal  ideas. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  century  the  modern  inductive  metliod 
of  research,  the  general  mechanical  and  biological  doctrines  of 
La  Place  and  Darwin,  and,  to  some  large  extent,  especially 
within  recent  years,  the  transplanted  results  of  German  philoso- 
phy, have  aifected  American  religious  thought  and  theological 
culture,  and  added  additional  elements  to  the  problem.  In  the 
general  American  mind  the  backbone  of  the  old  Calvinism  is 
effectually  broken.     It  is  a  dead  issue. 

'  This  question  is  as  old  as  the  Garden  of  Edon,  where  God  laid  down  the  first 
rule  of  faith  and  life;  and  Satan  for  the  first  time  volunteered  its  solution  in  saying, 
"Your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods."  The  question  ha^  come  up 
in  some  form  in  every  age,  the  Scholastics  elaborating  it  specifically  in  their  discus- 
sion of  the  relation  of  credo  and  intelligo. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  285 

Followiug  the  rebellion  against  dominant  ty2Jes  of  American 
doctrine,  there  has  come  rebellion  against  the  source  of  doctrine. 
The  more  recent  extension  of  the  domain  of  Reason  by  European 
critics  to  the  source  of  authority  itself,  the  Scripture,  has  led 
American  liberal  theology  and  literature  to  a  criticism  of  the 
rule  of  faith,  and,  with  the  facts  just  mentioned,  brought  about 
the  leading  general  religious  issue  and  condition  in  the  cultured 
American  mind  of  to-day.  It  is  not  necessary  to  detail  the  rise 
of  this  movement  of  Higher  Biblical  Criticism  which  has  taken 
possession  of  all  Germany,  much  of  Holland,  a  great  part  of 
Scotland  and  even  conservative  England,  nor  to  state  how  it  was 
brought  over  and  is  being  disseminated  here,  j^articularly  through 
such  schools  as  Union  Theological  Seminary.  It  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  the  old  style  of  Biblical  scholar  and  critic,  represented,  for 
instance,  by  Ezra  Abbott  and  the  writers  of  Smith's  "  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible"  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  has  been  supplanted ; 
and  present-day  Biblical  theology,  as  represented  in  both  the 
great  new  Bible  dictionaries  summarizing  the  learning  of  this 
epoch,  is  a  theology  mainly  occupied  with  showing  that  the  Bible 
cannot  be  the  only  and  infallible  rule  of  faith.  It  would  be  well 
worth  while  to  examine  the  compromise  of  the  English  half-way 
school,  which  is  trying  to  maintain,  in  criticism,  about  the  same 
position  that  the  Ritschliaus  have  set  up  in  doctrine,  namely,  that 
their  critical  results  do  not  interfere  with  their  piety,  devoutness, 
Christian  faith  and  orthodoxy. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  this  land  is  almost  the  only  great 
united  and  uncompromising  foe  of  such  negative  critical  issues. 
Luthcrauism,  if  orthodox,  must  be  such  a  foe  because  of  her 
formal  reformation  principle.  But  when  our  Lutheran  Church 
is  asked  to  meet  the  issue  in  a  theological  and  scientific  way,  how 
shall  she  do  so?  When  we  are  asked,  "Where  does  Reason  come 
in  in  the  theological  handling  of  the  Scripture  ? "  what  shall  we 
say? 

Mere  general  statements  on  the  untrustworthiness  or  the  sin- 
fulness and  blindness  of  human  reason,  however  true  they  may 
be,  and  however  satisfactory  to  true  believers  in  the  Word,  are 
neither  justifiable  nor  prudent  as  a  matter  of  argument  against 


286  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

the  springing  up  of  this  modern  American  issue.  In  the  judg- 
ment of  the  writer  there  is  something  better  to  be  said. 

Scripture,  though  the  only  rule  of  faith,  is  not  the  only  rule 
nor  the  only  source  of  knowledge.  It  was  not  intended  so  to  be. 
Reason  is  the  rule  and  one  of  the  sources  of  knowledge.  As  in 
all  other  complementary  spheres,  so  there  is  constant  interaction, 
reinforcement,  and  mutual  dependence  in  these  two  spheres. 
Faith,  coming  by  hearing,  rests  on  knowledge,  and  knowledge  is 
nothing  if  it  does  not  rest  on  faith.  Faith  is  needed  as  a  princi- 
ple in  all  knowledge,  and  reason  is  needed  as  an  organizer  and 
tester  in  all  faith. 

Knowledge  is  of  less  account  than  faith,  hecnuse  knotvledge  fails 
in  all  the  great  and  sxq^reme  finalities,  whereas  it  is  here  that 
faith  helps.  In  matters  of  faith  Scripture  is  the  only  reliable  and 
authoritative  source  of  knowledge,  and  it  is  the  only  rule  and 
standard  of  test.  But  in  matters  of  faith  reason  also  is  employed, 
and  is  necessary  as  an  organ  and  instrument.  Now  it  is  the  in- 
stinct of  reason  to  discover,  experiment  and  construct  wheresoever 
it  is  employed ;  and  to  be  so  confident  of  its  method,  materials  and 
results  as  to  proceed  in  the  sphere  of  faith,  independently  of  the 
rule  of  faith;  and  it  is  this  constant  self-confidence  of  reason, 
cropping  out  everywhere  in  faith  and  knowledge  and  life,  that 
leads  the  Christian  theologian,  notably  if  he  has  such  a  jirofound 
personal  spiritual  insight  as  Paul  and  Luther  had,  to  disparage 
and  distrust  reason.  The  philosopher's  temptation  is  to  disparage 
the  rule  of  faith.  The  theologian's  temptation  is  to  develop  the 
materials  of  faith  by  the  metliod  of  reason,  and  call  the  whole 
"  Faith  "  Logic,  the  organ  of  reason,  is  supreme  in  itd  own 
sphere,  and  is  infallible  as  a  method,  but  always  fallible  and 
partial  in  its  application.  Facts,  the  material  of  reason,  are  often 
not  what  they  seem,  as  the  testings  of  science  show ;  and  few 
combinations  of  fact  and  logic,  i.  e.,  knowledge,  are  strong  enough 
to  exclude  the  possibility  of  error  in  them.  They  appeal  to  us  in 
part  by  faith.  Conversely  faith  always  ap])eals  on  the  basis  of 
some  knowledge.  The  basis  of  knowledge  in  Faith  (i.  e.,  in 
Scripture)  is  sxibjed  to  the  same  laws  and  tests  of  knowledge  as 
elsewhere ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  subjected  to  the  same  theories,  if 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  287 

those  theories  are  in  conflict  with  the  rule  of  faitli.     The  thing  to 

do  is  to  hold  to  the  rule  of  faith  on  the  one  hand,  and  not  to  de- 

sj)ise  what  seem  to  be  the  facts  on  the  other,  but  knowing  the 

fallibility   of   our  powers   of  investigation  and    witnessing   the 

changeableness  in  science  from  age  to  age,  trust  to  an  unseen 

harmony  in  both.     This,  it  appears  to  the  writer,  is  the  true 

attitude  for  our  Church  in  all  the  critical  problems  of  the  day, 

and  especially  in  reference  to  the  negative  or  the  half-way  theories 

so  universally  seeking  introduction  under  the  name  of  the  Higher 

Criticism  of  the  books  of  the  Bible.     It  is  an  attitude  which  all 

thinkers  must  assume  in  reference  to  many  of  the  paradoxes  of 

knowledge  and  of  life  in  general.     It  is  scholarly,  honest  and 

orthodox. 

II. 

As  a  result  of  the  critical  spirit,  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  the 
theological  issues  of  our  day  are  not  those  of  a  creative  epoch. 
There  is  no  great  breaking  up  and  bursting  forth  of  fountains  of 
life  and  soul  and  spirit.  Not  the  heart  of  our  theologians,  but 
their  eye  and  their  hand  seem  most  active.  Things  are  looked  at 
from  without  rather  than  lived  through  from  within.  The  issues 
are  those  of  the  bearing  of  facts  on  theories,  of  intellectual  specu- 
lations, of  doubt,  of  order  and  externals,  of  works. 

There  is  no  great  and  absorbing  controversy  on  doctrine.  None 
of  the  old  types  of  intense  emotionalism  are  dominant.  There  is 
no  universal  wave  of  revivalism  or  pietism  sweeping  the  land. 
Writers  are  not  discussing  the  nature  of  the  operations  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  nor  the  questions  connected  with  conversion  ;  nor  are 
the  motives  of  eternal  life  and  death  put  forth  with  overpower- 
ing earnestness  in  the  pulpit.  The  great  Methodist  Church  is 
relegating  many  of  her  early  historic  and  essential  features  to  the 
background,  and  in  some  parts  is  substituting  a  Pelagian  culture 
as  the  best  order  of  religion.  Large  parts  of  the  great  Presby- 
terian Church  are  at  sea  on  the  critical  question,  and  know  not 
how  to  choose  between  the  old  spirit  of  legalistic  adherence  and 
the  new  one  of  critical  examination. 

Puritan,  Presbyterian,  Reformed  and  Methodist  are  yielding 
in  externals  to  the  Festival  and  Liturgical  idea.     The  Episcopal 


288  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

Church  is  desirous  of  becoming  the  Church  of  tlie  Aiiicrican 
nation,  and  as  heretofore  is  broad  enough  to  receive  distinguished 
orthodox  and  unorthodox  into  the  one  fold.  Tlie  Roman  Church 
is  pleading  in  national  matters  with  sweet  reasonableness,  that  its 
affinity  for  the  American  patriotic  spirit  and  institutions  may  be 
evident  to  all.  The  Second  Advent  doctrines,  especially  as  they 
are  connected  with  Seventh  Day  Baptist  teachings,  are  vigorous 
and  seem  to  be  making  some  progress. 

A  sober  view  of  religious  issues  in  America,  however,  does  not 
justify  German  historians  and  theologians  in  describing  America 
as  a  hot-bed  of  religious  wildness  and  fanaticism.  It  is  well  to 
recognize  the  truth  that  in  general  and  on  the  whole  America  is 
a  conservative  and  not  a  particularly  fanatical  religious  country. 
To  speak  of  "  Sectarian  America,"  as  is  often  done  in  discussions 
of  American  religious  issues,  seems  to  the  writer  to  be  unjust  to 
our  land.  Scotland  gave  us  the  half  score  branches  of  Presbyte- 
rianism.  England  furnished  most  of  the  Baptists  and  the  Puri- 
tans. From  her  we  have  the  Salvation  Army  and  similar  types. 
Germany  sent  us  the  Dunkers  and  Schwenckfelters  and  Moravians 
and  Amish  and  Mennonites.  Not  merely  the  wild  theological, 
philosophical  and  anarchistic,  but  a  large  majority  of  the  relig- 
iously fanatical,  unorthodox  and  sectarian  ideas  have  come  over 
to  us  from  Europe  to  become  less  wild  here.  If  there  were  no 
State  repression  there,  we  Americans  might  probably  be  speaking 
with  some  justice  of  the  old  country  as  "  sect-cursed  Europe." 
And  it  is  a  marvelous  testimony  to  the  general  conservatism  of 
America  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  State  Churches  of  Eu- 
rope, in  their  unwillingness  to  grant  every  man  the  right  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  have 
driven  to  America  many  whom  state  intolerance  has  brought  to 
the  borders  of  revolution,  nevertheless  throughout  the  country  the 
spirit  of  religious  extravagance  is  not  dominant,  but  is  ever  grow- 
ing weaker  and  weaker.  We  should  recognize  that  America  is 
not  a  particularly  fanatical  religious  country. 

But  on  the  contrary  the  general  religious  situation,  under  the 
stimulus  of  what  may  perhaps  be  called  a  journalistic  or  news- 
paper pulpit  and  religion,  is  one  in  which  the  Church  is  regarded 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  289 

rather  as  au  influeuce  on  society  than  as  a  communion  of  saints 
or  a  peculiar  people  ;  the  Scripture  is  looked  at  as  rather  an  in- 
spiration than  a  rule  ;  Christ  is  considered  as  ratlier  an  ideal  than 
a  Redeemer  and  Judge.  Every  man  holds  religious  views  ab- 
sorbed from  philosophy  and  literature,  rather  than  a  faith 
grounded  on  and  ruled  by  catechism  and  creed.  There  is  a  wide- 
spread feeling  that  a  simpler  religion  of  the  future  is  developing. 
This  general  way  of  regarding  the  whole  subject  of  religion  be- 
comes evident  in  the  addresses  of  prominent  men  at  public  con- 
ventions ;  in  what  is  taught  in  schools  of  lower  and  higher  and  of 
technical  university  education  ;  in  the  instruction  of  some  depart- 
ments in  such  colleges  as  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia  and  Prince- 
ton ;  in  the  teachings  of  such  reflectors  of  public  opinion  as  The 
Hmyer's  and  The  Century  Magazines,  The  Forum,  The  Outlook, 
The  North  American  Review,  The  Eevieiv  of  Reviews,  and  The  Lit- 
erary Digest. 

The  issue  then  is  one  of  a  civilization  weakening  widely  in  its 
positive  faith,  willing  to  regard  fundamental  religious  doctrines 
as  open  questions,  active  in  works  of  education  and  mercy ;  of 
an  age  in  which  a  luminous  haze  of  universal  charity,  "  gorgeous 
as  the  dying  rays  of  sunset,"  diffuses  itself  throughout  all  the  air. 
Expectation  of  future  judgment,  of  hell,  and  even  of  heaven,  are 
sublimated  almost  to  vanishing. 

What  shall  the  Lutheran  Church  do  in  such  surroundings? 
Shall  she  tone  down  her  teaching  of  salvation  by  faith  alone  to  a 
harmonious  resonance  with  such  universal  sentiment?  Shall  she 
loosen  her  hold  on  Scripture  as  the  only  rule  of  foith  and  life? 
Shall  she  give  up  her  Lord  and  Christ,  in  His  person,  work,  and 
oflfices,  and  deal  with  Him  and  with  them  as  an  open  question  ? 
Shall  she  widen  out  the  nature  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Word,  and 
attenuate  sin,  and  humanize  the  means  of  grace,  to  fit  the  religion 
of  the  day?  Not  if  we  can  help  it.  By  faith  the  fathers  of  every 
age  held  to  their  treasure  of  salvation  in  by-gone  days,  even  amid 
the  greater  darkness  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  we  are  told  in 
Hebrews  12,  and  by  faith  we  shall  be  able  to  hold  to  Word  and 
Sacrament  until  the  world  is  overcome. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  her  innermost  nature  and  fibre  is 
19 


290  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

altogether  against  the  spirit  of  such  a  civilization  as  we  have  just 
delineated.  If  there  is  any  strength  in  her  strength,  and  she  is 
to  be  strong  in  her  own  strength,  she  cannot  yield  to  it.  Our 
Church's  faith  is  her  only  power  and  treasure.  Give  up  this, 
and  all  is  gone.  None  who  have  ever  strengthened  weakness, 
have  done  so  by  making  themselves  like  unto  it.  If  to  become 
all  things  to  all  men,  we  give  up  the  one  thing  needed  to  save 
some,  we  rather  lose  than  gain. 

But  what  is  the  Church  to  do  ?  To  shut  itself  out  from  present- 
day  civilization  ?  It  could  not  if  it  would,  and  it  ought  not  if  it 
could.  To  day's  problems  are  our  problems.  Their  weaknesses 
are  our  weaknesses.  Their  burdens  are  our  burdens.  Their 
powers  of  fascination  are  our  temptation.  Their  strength  is  our 
rod  of  chastisement.  To  ignore  them,  means  death  to  us,  no  less 
than  to  compromise  with  them.  We  cannot  remain  in  our  citadel 
wdth  the  enemy  tampering  with  our  fields  and  our  water  supply. 
We  are  to  go  forth  and  meet  the  influences  of  the  day.  We  are 
not  to  despise  what  good  they  have  to  offer  us ;  and  we  also  are  not 
to  he  beguiled  into  becoming  like  unto  those  affected  by  them 
that  we  may  sail  smoothly  in  the  broad  current  of  the  majority. 

Faith  more  than  theirs,  patience  more  than  theirs,  large 
heartedness  more  than  theirs,  a  humble  willingness  to  learn  from 
adversaries  more  than  theirs,  a  better  use  of  our  reason,  an  equal 
skill  in  method,  will  finally  give  us  the  victory.  For  they  who 
believe  what  they  know,  and  who  know  what  they  believe,  are 
always  in  the  end  more  powerful  than  they  who  do  not  know 
whether  they  know  or  whether  they  believe. 

III. 

As  we  pass  from  the  general  issues  of  the  modern  theological 
situation  to  the  special  and  more  practical  religious  issues  of  the 
day,  we  meet  first  of  all  as  a  prominently  discussed  American 
problem,  a  question  that  probably  will  come  up  in  many  aspects 
in  various  papers  presented  at  this  Conference. 

With  the  advent  of  large  views  and  easy  toleration  of  adverse 
systems,  the  feeling  always  grows  that  it  is  a  discredit,  if  not  a 
disgrace  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  a  practical  argument  against 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  291 

its  divine  character,  tliat  Christendom  is  divided  into  so  many 
churches  each  holding  its  own  narrow  and  peculiar  views  on 
minor  points  so  tenaciously,  and  each  so  jealous  of  the  other  in 
competing  activities,  that  the  force  of  unity  and  the  exercise  of 
Christian  charity  are  altogether  lost.  There  is  probably  no 
theme  which  is  touched  on  in  a  popuhir  way  by  the  average 
critics  of  the  Church  more  frequently  than  this  one. 

There  is  no  one  who  has  been  more  anxious  or  more  zealous  in 
attempting  to  gather  the  scattered  forces  of  Christendom  into  a 
visible  unity  under  a  single  head  than  the  present  Pope  of  Rome. 
This  has  been  his  dream  and  his  hope  for  years.  In  his  view 
these  divisions  are  the  natural  and  necessary  result  of  the  indi- 
vidual-responsibility principle  of  Protestantism,  and  he  is  most 
earnestly  desirous  of  bringing  Congregationalists,  Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians  and  all  others  back  into  the  Roman  fold.  Then 
Christianity  would  have  but  two  sects  at  least,  the  Roman  and 
the  Russian. 

Some  of  the  leading  Protestant  agitators  in  America,  who  are 
not  altogether  prepared  for  a  return  to  a  visible  unity  under  the 
Pope,  have  been  urging  that  all  the  small  denominations  gather 
and  merge  themselves  into  four  or  five  representative  Protestant 
types,  and  that  all  the  various  divisions  in  the  large  bodies  come 
at  once  into  organic  fellowshi[)  relation  with  each  other.  It  has 
been  notably  a  powerful  independent  religious  journal  in  New 
York  which,  assuming  a  quasi-Papal  prerogative  for  American 
Protestantism,  has  been  telling  the  various  religious  communions 
that  they  must  do  this,  and  that  they  have  neither  reason  nor 
right  to  refuse.  By  one  of  the  curious  instances  of  the  laws  of 
extremes,  it  is  thus  the  leading  independent  paper  of  America 
which  is  endeavoring  to  compel  denominations  of  America  to 
give  up  independence,  A  third  and  curious  proposition  made  to 
Christendom  to  unite,  is  known  to  all  as  the  Lambeth  Proposals 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  needs  to  be  only  alluded  to  here. 

The  Lutheran  Church  disposes  of  this  whole  issue  in  its  most 
essential  points  by  the  fundamental  teaching  that  the  true  unity 
of  the  Church  is  a  unity  of  spirit,  and  not  a  unity  of  government ; 
that  the  "One  Holy  Church"  is  the  congregation  of  saints  which 


292  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

is  to  continue  forever,  and  which  is  to  be  found  wheresoever  under 
any  name  the  Gospel  is  riglitly  tauglit  and  tlie  sacraments  ai-e 
rightly  administered ; '  and  that  no  human  government,  rites,  or 
ceremonies,  instituted  by  man,  are  essential  to  the  true  unity  of 
the  Church,  or  necessary  to  salvation. 

She  admits  the  advantages  of  external  unity,  and  has  suffered 
from  the  lack  of  it.  She  realizes  that  an  organically  united 
church  can  throw  weightier  power,  in  influence,  in  training,  in 
finance,  against  the  world  and  against  unbelief.  She  knows  that 
there  is  economy  in  concentration  of  interests  in  these  days,  and 
that  the  Church's  educational  and  publication  spheres  would  be 
served  with  better  qualities  at  lower  rates.  The  Church  cannot 
help  seeing,  furthermore,  that  much  misspent  energy  now  wasted 
in  denominational  rivalries,  would  be  conserved  by  greater  unity. 
Her  young  people,  also,  are  much  attracted  l)y  the  fiict  that  size 
and  number  and  influence  make  the  Church  popular  and  seem  to 
draw  in  followers. 

And  we  confess  that  the  Church  ought  practice  as  fully  as  she 
realizes,  and  that  she  ought  realize  more  fully  than  she  does,  that 
it  is  a  scandal  for  any  part  or  the  whole  of  the  body  of  Christ  to 
hold  jealousy  or  hatred  toward  any  neighbors,  to  engage  in  earthly 
methods  of  unlawful  competition,  or  to  alienate  mcmlicrs  from 
the  vilest  sect  in  earth  by  means  that  would  be  considered  disrep- 
utable in  business.  The  Church  should  see  that  she  ought  fear 
and  love  God  and  not  unlawfully  entice  a  person  away  from  an- 
other church,  even  if  she  thereby  intends  to  save  a  soul.  This 
latter  is  Jesuitism.  And  furthermore  certain  agreements  to  these 
effects  ought  be  entered  into  where  necessary  by  even  the  most 
hostile  churches. 

The  Lutheran  Church  appreciates  in  full  also  the  glories  of  a 
common  service  and  a  common  praxis.  But  she  appreciates  in 
addition  that  these  are  the  blossoms,  and  not  the  root  of  a  vital 
unity,  and  that  they  are  valuable  chiefly  as  they  are  the  out- 
breathing  of  a  common  doctrine  and  common  faith.  She  holds 
that  it  is  not  a  scandal  on  Christendom,  but  a  righteous  thing,  to 
have  the  Church  divided  so  long  as  convictions  and  spirit  are 
»Aug.  Conf.,  VII. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  293 

diverse,  and  fiiith  and  doctrine  are  divided.  She  holds  that  doc- 
trine ought  hold  together  and  rule  any  church  bod}',  and  not  a 
form  of  government  or  practical  expediency.  This  is  only  an- 
other way  of  saying  that,  in  her  judgment,  men  ought  be  true  to 
their  principles,  and  not  be  asked  to  compromise  them. 

She  does  not  consider  that  it  is  charity,  but  weak  sentiment, 
as  a  rule,  to  admit  to  pulpit  and  altar  those  who  believe  differ- 
ently, and  intend  to  continue  believing  differently,  from  what  she 
does.  She  does  not  consider  that  a  failure  to  admit  them  is  any 
personal  disparagement  of  them,  or  any  judgment  upon  their 
Christian  character ;  and  she  herself  would  not  desire  to  be  found 
in  pulpits  or  at  altars  where  what  she  prizes  is  missing.  She 
could  quote  with  approbation  a  large  part  of  the  words  of  Dr. 
Hodge,  found  in  a  letter  written  as  early  as  1839,  and  now  in 
the  archives  of  the  Gettysburg  Seminary,  in  which  he  says,  "  I 
cannot  see  that  external  union  is  of  any  great  value  among 
Christians,  except  so  far  as  it  is  the  expression  and  evidence  of 
internal  union.  The  Scriptures  enjoin  on  all  the  disciples  of 
Christ  TO  aoTo  (ppoMt'vj,  which,  of  course,  includes  a  great  deal. 
Where  this  is,  there  is  true  union ;  and  external  union  should  be 
carried  just  so  far  as  it  can  be  without  endangering  this  spiritual 
union,  which  is  of  so  much  more  importance.  .  .  .  It  is,  I  think, 
going  the  wrong  way  to  work  to  bring  people  externally  together 
before,  or  to  a  greater  degree  than  they  are  in  harmony  as  to 
views  and  feelings.  All  such  attempts  have  not  only  hitherto 
failed,  but  have  ultimately  widened  the  breach." 

Though  the  Church  cannot  unite,  yet  much  can  be  done,  even 
where  there  is  open  hostility  to  remove  the  stigma  that  often 
attaches  itself,  and  sometimes  justly,  to  religious  and  theological 
controversv.  Even  the  nations  of  the  world,  when  they  are  not 
at  war  with  each  other,  have  some  sense  of  justice,  charity  and 
honor  resj)ecting  each  other,  and  enter  into  and  regard  agree- 
ments that  strip  the  w\ar  of  its  most  inhuman  and  unchristian 
features. 

Armies  are  not  permitted  to  glut  their  passions,  unnecessary 
destruction  and  rapine  are  prohibited,  prisoners  of  war  are  ex- 
changed, prisoners  are  permitted  to  receive  home  mail,  flags  of 


294  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

truce  are  respected,  the  Red  Cross  is  protected,  the  dead  are  not 
robbeil  hut  decently  buried,  and  are  allowed  to  be  reclaiuied,  and 
a  multitude  of  minor  annoyances  are  borne  calmly  in  time  of  ten- 
sion, every  resource  of  diplomacy  being  exhausted  to  maintain 
the  public  peace. 

If  the  world  in  its  warfare  can  create  such  a  series  of  import- 
ant and  restrictive  understandings,  and  hostile  nations  can  com- 
municate and  co-operate  to  carry  them  out,  surely  the  Christian 
Church,  in  its  arguments  and  controversies  with  even  the  most 
divergent  of  antagonists,  or  the  worst  of  errorists,  should  insist  on 
doing  the  same. 

Many  things  could  be  effected  by  mutual  understandings  and 
agreements  within  the  various  bodies  and  Synods  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  which  would  compromise  none  of  tliem,  would  make 
neither  side  a  party  to  any  of  the  errors  or  heresies  imputed  to 
the  other,  would  not  even  involve  Fellowship)  with  them,  but 
which  would  remove  the  sin  and  reproach,  now  often  justly  and 
often  unjustly  ascribed,  from  the  parties  concerned.  There 
should  be  understandings  —  to  respect  each  others'  common 
ground,  to  refuse  to  allow  the  less  charitable  motive  to  be  im- 
puted in  a  controversy,  and  to  discipline  all  hatred.  Even  error- 
ists have  rights  to  be  respected,  and  fidse  doctrine  itself  has  one 
right  none  can  take  away,  the  right  to  be  dealt  with  fairly. 

There  is  no  part  of  our  Lutheran  Church  that  would  com- 
promise herself,  as  to  her  more  exclusive  teachings,  by  standing 
with  other  Lutherans  on  the  common  base  of  mutually  accepted 
teachings,  and  by  acting  together  on  that  common  lower  base, 
provided  that  it  be  definitely  understood  that  there  is  cordial  and 
earnest  disagreement  on  the  narrower  and  higher  base.^ 

IV. 

Next  in  prominence  to  the  issue  of  Church  Unity,  among  all 
the  general  practical  religious  issues  in  this  land,  many  persons 
would  mention  one  in  which  the  Lutheran  Church  is  occasionally 

1  A  number  of  practical  suggestions  as  to  what  might  be  done  along  these 
lines  by  our  Church,  in  the  writer's  manuscript  as  presented  to  the  Confer- 
ence, are  here  omitted  by  him,  for  the  reason  that  they  could  not  be  read, 
aud  did  not  therefore  actually  become  a  part  of  the  Proceedings. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  295 

drawn  into  the  foreground  in  a  negative  way.  It  is  the  issue  of 
Moral  Reform.  The  constitutional  indisposition  and  innate 
slowness  of  Lutheranism  to  believe  that  people  can  be  made  bet- 
ter by  the  imposition  of  a  law  from  without,  just  as  little  as  they 
can  be  brought  into  church  unity  by  the  adoption  of  external 
regulations;  together  with  the  disagreement  of  a  large  part  of 
the  Church  in  judgment  and  methods  as  to  that  which  is  to  be  a 
subject-nuitter  of  reform  in  our  laud ;  possibly  has  caused  her  to 
go  to  an  opposite  extreme  at  times,  and  to  take  less  interest  in 
necessary  and  proper  reform  than  she  really  ought.  And,  in- 
deed, even  in  the  conspicuous  and  radical  questions  of  reform, 
stirred  by  extreme  Puritan  agitators,  there  does  not  seem  to  be 
any  widespread  and  living  interest  at  the  present  moment.  The 
customary  Sabbath-day  reform  movement,  and  the  agitations 
against  Sunday  papers,  Sunday  trains,  Sunday  concerts  and  Sun- 
day amusements,  seem  to  be  decadent  in  radical  circles  at  the 
present  moment.  The  temperance  and  the  prohibition  questions 
have  been  put  into  the  background  politically  by  other  issues. 
The  peace  question  has  been  momentarily  forgotten  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  Spanish  war.  Nor  are  there  any  great  social,  charity 
or  labor  questions  sufficiently  prominent  to  absorb  the  general  pub- 
lic mind  just  at  this  time.  Nevertheless  the  general  situation  and 
conditions  are  with  us  always,  and  new  development  may  spring 
forth  from  them  again  at  any  day.  The  attitude  of  our  Church 
must  always  be  against  ecclesiastical  participation  in  such  politi- 
cal reform  agitations,  even  where  the  reforms  themselves  are  both 
desirable  and  important.^ 

But  there  is  another  side  to  the  question,  and  one  which  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  this  land  has  been  slow  to  recognize  and 
consider.  Wherever  the  Augsburg  Confession  speaks  of  the 
•'Imperial  Majesty,"  of  "Electors,"  "Princes  and  Estates,"  who 
are  the  earthly  sources  of  civil  power,  as  distinct  from  the  magis- 
trates and  judges,  who  are  its  instruments  and  organs,  there,  to- 
day, we  must  read  "the  American  citizen."  The  same  close  con- 
nection that  existed  in  those  days  between  the  individual  sources 

1  The  writer's  MSS.  enters  into  a  full  discussion  of  the  reasons  for  this 
statement. 


296  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

of  civil  power  aud  the  Cliristian  religion  exists  to-ilay  betAveeu 
the  individual  American  citizen  and  the  Christian  religion.  It  is 
not  merely  the  office-bearers,  the  President,  the  Governor,  the 
Judge,  that  the  Church  obeys,  but  it  is  the  office  creators  and 
controllers  in  their  individual  capacity  that  the  Church  touches 
and  teaches.  Our  Church  has  scarcely  opened  its  eyes  to  its  re- 
sponsibility in  this  matter  in  our  land.  It  has  always  S])oken  out 
boldly  of  duties  to  magistrates  and  office-bearers,  but  it  has  failed 
to  realize,  that  what  Luther  was  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  as 
elector,  that  the  representative  of  the  Church  to-day  is  to  be  to 
the  American  citizen  as  citizen. 

In  other  words,  to  speak  briefly,  the  Christian  is  the  State. 
There  is  to  be  entire  separation  l)etween  the  Church  aud  State, 
but  not  between  the  Christian  and  the  State.  The  "  Let  alone  " 
policy  which  Lutherans  are  apt  to  assume  and  teach  with  refer- 
ence to  the  State  is  a  great  mistake.  Coming  over  from  the  old 
country,  they  learn  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise  very  quickly 
as  political  citizens,  but  outside  of  obedience  to  the  law,  they  do 
not  see  what  it  means  to  be  Christian  citizens.  Trained  to  obey 
law,  they  do  not  seem  to  grasp  Christian  responsibility  as  to  the 
source  of  that  law.  They  seem  to  think  the  State  some  outside 
power  which  has  been  constituted  from  above  in  a  way  that  does 
not  concern  them,  and  which  is  to  go  on  by  itself,  or  at  least  with- 
out them  as  Lutherans.  All  they  ask  of  it,  as  Christians,  is  to 
be  let  alone  by  it,  and  they  feel  a  right  to  let  it  alone  as  Chris- 
tians, except  when  some  peculiar  interests,  language  or  other,  are 
involved.     Such  is  not  their  right. ^ 

The  position  just  taken  in  reference  to  the  Church  aud  the 
State  has  a  direct  bearing  on  what  the  writer  regards  as  the  most 
important  practical  "  modern  American  religious  issue,"  viz.,  the 
question  of  Education.  This  question,  including  the  issues  be- 
tween church  and  state,  between  church  and  American  educa- 
tional influences ;  between  sound  and  unsound  methods  aud  old 
and  new  methods  in  the  Church  ;  and  including  a  consideration 
of  what  should  and  could  be  undertaken  in  the  agencies  of  cate- 

•  It  is  impossible  to  present  any  more  of  the  argument  to  be  made  on  this 
point,  in  this  paper. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  297 

chetical  instruction  and  the  Sunday-school ;  and  in  the  placing 
of  parochial  instruction  on  such  a  permanent  and  universal  foot- 
ing, as  does  not  exist  on  the  one  hand  where  it  is  altogether  neg- 
lected, and  on  the  other  hand,  where  members  look  on  the  agency 
employed  largely  as  a  language  institution,  can  be  but  alluded 
to;  and  such  other  modern  religious  issues  in  America,  originally 
treated  in  the  writer's  paper,  as  "  Social  and  Institutional  Chris- 
tianity," "  Young  People's  Movements  in  American  Churches,"  and 
"  The  Woman  Suffrage  Question,"  can  barely  be  even  alluded  to. 

But  what  above  all  else  the  writer  desires  to  emphasize  by  way 
of  conclusion  is  the  fact  that  the  relative  prominence  of  the 
religious  issues  before  the  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with  their 
relative  importance.  To  the  Lutheran  Church  the  most  important 
issues  are  not  matters  of  worship,  howsoever  useful  these  may  be ; 
not  matters  of  government,  howsoever  pressing  these  may  be ;  not 
matters  of  reform,  howsoever,  urgent  these  may  seem,  but  matters 
of  teaching.  And  in  matters  of  teaching  the  pre-eminent  ques- 
tions are  not  those  commonly  discussed ;  not  matters  of  Origin, 
whether  of  Predestination  or  Creation ;  not  matters  of  Destiny, 
whether  of  Cliiliasm  or  a  Future  Probation,  but  matters  of  Sal- 
vation : 

First — That  we  need  to  be  saved.     The  matter  of  Sin. 

Second — That  we  have  a  Saviour.  The  matter  of  the  Person 
of  Christ. 

Third — That  we  are  saved  by  faith  alone.  The  matter  of  Jus- 
tification by  Faith,  and 

Fourth — That  Faith  comes  alone  through  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments.   The  matter  of  the  Means  of  Grace. 

THE   PROBLEM  OF   CO-OPERATION, 

BY  M.  W.  HAMMA,  D.D., 

which  is  the  subject  of  this  paper,  is  a  somewhat  new  manifesta- 
tion in  modern  Lutheran  history  in  this  country.  Until  late 
years  the  tendencies  were  rather  to  multiply  divisions  and  to  per- 
petuate those  already  existing.    That  sooner  or  later  there  should 


298  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

come  a  revulsion  against  this  unhappy  state  of  things,  between 
the  brethren  of  substantially  the  same  faith,  should  not  seem 
strange,  but  ought  rather  to  be  regarded  as  the  legitimate  fruit 
of  divine  grace  in  the  hearts  of  true  believers. 

In  this  presence  it  is  not  needful  to  enter  into  any  details  as  to 
the  disagreements  and  divisions  of  the  past,  now,  we  hope,  happily 
beginning  to  disappear.  Neither  is  it  necessary  to  trace  the  rise 
of  this  new  movement,  called  "  Practical  Co-operation,"  between 
three  of  our  general  Lutheran  bodies,  for  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  what  has  taken  place  in  that  direction,  is  so  manifestly  a 
Providential  movement,  that  it  demands  our  most  serious  and 
thoughtful  attention. 

But,  as  we  are  yet  only  upon  the  threshold  of  this  problem, 
it  concerns  ^^s,  first  of  all,  to  know  what  is  the  scojye  of  its  meanhiff. 

In  order  to  a  clear  conception  of  the  subject,  it  is  necessary  to 
state  the  terms  of  this  Basis  of  Co-operation,  as  existing  between 
the  three  bodies  having  consented  thereto. 

First,  Home  3Iissions. — Touching  this,  the  policy  was  adopted 
"  That  wherevei'  one  body  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  hereunto 
consenting,  is  in  occupation  of  a  field  and  is  shown,  in  a  reason- 
able degree,  able  to  care  for  our  Lutheran  material  therein,  the 
other  or  others  shall  respect  such  occupancy,  and  abstain  from 
any  attempt  to  plant  any  additional  congregation  to  operate  in 
the  same  language,  and  that  in  case  of  any  disagreement,  the 
Home  ^Mission  Boards  or  Committees  of  the  Bodies  concerned 
shall  amicably  adjust  such  differences." 

Second,  Foreign  Missions. — The  article  on  this  subject  is, 
"That  recognizing  the  intimate  relations  already  existing  be- 
tween the  missionaries  of  the  different  bodies  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  where  laboring  in  adjoining  foreign  fields,  we  encourage 
them  to  promote  the  uplniilding  of  the  one  undivided  Lutheran 
Church,  in  their  christianizing  efforts." 

Third,  Our  Church  Papers. — The  action  adopted  on  this  item 
is,  "  That  we  deprecate  a  bitter  controversional  spirit,  wherever 
found  in  matters  of  religion,  and  that  we  heartily  disapprove  of 
it  in  any  of  our  Church  journals,  and  that  we  affectioiuitely  and 
sincerely  counsel  all  who  write  for,  and  those  who  control,  our 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  299 

Lutheran  papers  and  periodicals,  to  abstain  from  publishing  any- 
thing that  will  tend  to  foster  the  spirit  of  partisan  division  among 
the  brethren  of  our  Lutheran  household,  and  that  we  counsel 
them  to  seek  to  exalt  those  things  especially  and  only,  which 
consistently,  with  the  testimony  for  the  purity  of  our  Lutheran 
faith,  will  promote  the  peace  and  the  unity  of  our  beloved 
Lutheran  Church." 

Fourth,  In  Conclusion. — It  was  ordained  "  That  when  these 
lines  of  co-operation,  or  any  number  of  them,  shall  have  been 
agreed  upon  by  two  or  more  Lutheran  Bodies,  such  action  shall 
be  held  as  a  sacred  compact  between  the  parties  consenting  there- 
to ;  and  that  we  hereby  invoke  upon  this  movement,  for  the  prac- 
tical unification  of  our  glorious  Church,  the  blessing  of  Almighty 
God." 

The  Fifth  Article  is  explanatory,  to  the  effect,  "  That  the  above 
action  is  not  to  be  interpreted  in  such  way  as  to  imply  a  com- 
promise or  surrender  of  the  Bodies  represented  concerning  any 
point  of  their  doctrinal  positions." 

The  following  was  added  to  the  above  basis  by  subsequent  ac- 
tion :  "  That  when  any  general  body  has  congregations,  what- 
ever be  the  language,  the  establishment  of  a  congregation  of  an- 
other general  body  within  the  territory  be  not  undertaken,  unless 
the  Board  of  INIissions  occupying  the  territory,  and  the  officers 
of  the  Synod  in  the  field,  be  first  consulted. 

"No  established  congregation  shall  be  hinclered  by  this  agree- 
ment from  changing  the  language  of  its  worship,  or  from  estab- 
lishing a  mission  in  another  language  within  its  own  Parish." 

The  final  court  of  appeal  is  a  committee  of  arbitration,  com- 
posed of  three  members  from  each  body  in  the  compact,  "  to 
whom  shall  be  referred  all  cases  where  agreement  has  not  been 
otherwise  obtained,"  and  each  general  body  in  this  committee 
shall  have  one  vote  only. 

While  these  articles  of  agreement  need  no  very  close  analysis 
to  obtain  their  meaning,  yet  by  some  examination,  they  may  be 
set  into  the  order  of  a  better  understanding, 

1st.  The  agreement  touching  Home  Missions  is  intended  to 
correct  that  long-standing  evil  of  the  unnece^isary  multiplication 


300  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

of  Lutheran  congregatious  iu  the  same  locality,  ofttimcs  organ- 
ized out  of  an  undue  zeal  rather  for  party  success  than  for  the 
glory  of  God.  It  has  not  been  an  uncommon  occurrence  to  build 
Lutheran  Church  by  the  side  of  Lutheran  Church,  until,  in  a 
community  where  one  organization  of  the  kind  would  have  been 
ample,  two  or  three  divided  the  field  and  frittered  aAvay  an  oppor- 
tunity by  jealousies  and  strifes,  and  brought  defeat  and  disrepute 
instead  of  honor  to  a  noble  cause.  It  was  long  felt  by  many 
that,  for  those  who  were  practically  of  the  same  faith,  to  give 
themselves  to  such  methods  of  work  was  a  scandal  too  grievous 
for  the  Christian  name  to  bear.  From  the  nature  of  the  case, 
along  the  line  of  Home  Missions  will  be  found  the  mutual  aggres- 
sions, out  of  which  conflicts  are  likely  to  grow. 

Under  the  terms  of  this  agreement  it  is  sought  to  abolish  this 
unchristian  and  destructive  rivalry,  and  substitute  for  it  a  fra- 
ternal comity,  which  Avill  lead  all  to  co-operate  for  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number. 

The  congregation  of  one  Lutheran  body  located  in  a  commu- 
nity that  is  large  enough  only  to  adequately  support  the  one,  is 
to  be  allowed  to  hold  the  field  for  itself,  undivided  by  the  incom- 
ing of  other  Lutheran  bodies.  And  in  any  territory,  where  one 
body  has  congregations,  no  other  Lutheran  body  shall  enter, 
unless  the  Board  of  Missions  occupying  the  territory,  and  the 
officers  of  the  Synod  in  the  field,  be  first  consulted. 

This  might  prove  an  arbitrary  ai'rangement  were  it  not  modi- 
fied so  that  a  previous  consultation  is  really  all  that  may  be 
necessary  to  open  the  door  to  the  congregation  seeking  entrance. 

If  a  disagreement  occurs  after  consultation,  then,  as  in  all  other 
cases,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  arbitration.  Under  this  compact 
no  one  body  has  the  power  to  absolutely  close  the  door  of  a  field 
against  another.  Their  own  consent  is  not  held  by  the  parties  in 
possession  as  a  fixed  barrier  against  those  outside  ;  but  the  cour 
tesy  of  previous  notification  and  consultation  before  entrance  and 
work  are  begun,  is  named  as  a  condition  of  good  ftxith. 

And  it  must  always  be  remembered  that,  after  all  these  nego- 
tiations have  taken  place;  first,  between  the  local  parties  con- 
cerned, second,  between  the  Boards,  and  lastly,  iu  tlie  Committee 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  301 

of  Arbitration,  bet\Yeeu  the  bodies  in  interest,  the  obligation  to 
abide  by  the  final  decision,  while  as  strong  as  moral  force  can 
make  it,  cannot,  according  to  Lutheran  polity,  be  absolutely 
binding  on  the  losing  party,  should  manifest  injustice  charac- 
terize the  decision. 

As  to  the  provision,  that  an  established  Church  shall  have  the 
right  to  change  the  language  of  its  worship,  or  to  found  a  mis- 
sion in  another  language  within  its  own  Parish,  those  are  rights 
beyond  question,  when  exercised  in  conformity  with  the  true 
meaning  of  the  terms  in  which  they  are  stated. 

The  article  on  Foreign  IMissions,  by  reason  of  the  remoteness 
of  the  work  from  Home  divisions  and  Home  controversies,  need 
but  be  hospitably  entertained,  and  it  will  be  self-operative  in  its 
harmonizing  and  unifying  work. 

The  fraternal  and  altogether  Christian  counsel  contained  in  the 
paragraph  on  the  conduct  of  church  journals  is  so  far  removed 
from  possible  objection,  and  is  so  thoroughly  in  the  line  of  the 
common  courtesies  of  Christianity,  that  it  needs  neither  apology 
nor  explanation. 

From  this  brief  review  of  the  elements  which  enter  into  this 
plan  of  Co-operation,  the  purpose  of  it  all  may  be  clearly  arrived 
at,  viz.,  to  cultivate  a  better  understanding  and  to  secure  such 
co-operation  between  the  different  bodies  of  Lutherans,  along 
common  lines  of  work,  as  may  be  possible  and  consistent,  and  as 
may  finally  lead  to  a  practically  united  Lutheran  Church. 

I  use  the  terras  practically  united,  to  distinguish  from  organi- 
callxj  united,  because  the  latter  has  never  been  aimed  at  as  a 
distinct  object  of  this  movement.  Indeed,  its  originators  and 
friends  have  been  so  far  from  seeking  organic  unity  as  not  only 
to  hold,  but  to  freely  express,  the  belief,  that  such  a  consumma- 
tion, under  existing  circumstances,  would,  if  even  possible,  be  of 
very  questionable  utility. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  if  ever  such  unity  comes  to  pass  it  will 
be  wrought  of  the  spontaneous  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
not  of  man's  planning  and  manufacture. 

But  it  is  deemed  not  only  possible,  but  greatly  desirable,  for 
the  various  Lutheran  bodie-s  to  come  together  into  harmonious 


302  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

practical  icork  on  common  lines,  such  as  contemplated  by  this 
plan  of  "  Co-operation." 

But  that  thore  are  difficulties  in  the  Avay  of  the  consummation 
of  this  problem  is  a  self-evident  fact. 

One  of  the  first  of  these  obstacles  is  the  diversities  of  languages 
and  nationalities.  The  Lutheran  is  a  world-embracing  CMiurch, 
and  brings  her  representatives  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe 
together  into  this  land,  so  that  the  first  difficulties  that  confront 
any  effiarts  toward  a  union  of  these  forces  in  common  work  are 
not  easy  of  accomplishment.  These  obstacles,  like  the  poor,  we 
•'have  always  with  us."  And  while  this  is,  in  the  main,  a  perma- 
nent condition,  yet  in  every  coming  generation  the  work  of  trans- 
formation of  many  languages  and  many  nationalities  into  one,  as 
we  find  them  in  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country,  goes  on  more 
easily  and  more  rapidly.  It  is  not  safe  to  say  to-day  that  we  can- 
not work  together  because  we  are  of  different  tongues  and  different 
lands,  for  to-morrow,  comparatively  speaking,  we  shall  be  one  in 
language  and  one  in  country.  While  in  some  parts  of  the  world 
a  certain  language  is  the  mummy  shroud  of  one  religion,  or  a 
given  nation  is  the  sealed  tomb  of  another,  in  this  new  world, 
from  the  nature  of  things,  it  can  not  be  so.  The  intermingling 
forces  which  here  so  enmesh  and  environ  every  path  of  life  are 
more  and  more  eflfective  in  reducing  to  the  minimum  linguistic 
and  national  obstacles,  in  the  way  of  the  practical  unity  of  the 
diverse  elements  present,  into  a  homogeneous  people.  And  it 
were  contradictory  of  the  Divine  order  if  similar  influences 
should  not  produce  similar  results  in  our  polyglot  Lutheran 
Church. 

Be  it  far  from  me  to  speak  lightly  of  any  of  the  tongues  and 
lands  into  which  our  Church  is  sub-divided.  The  least  (»f  them 
has  a  record  of  immortal  honor.  Their  noble  deeds  of  heroism 
and  martyrs'  devotion  have  added  undying  lustre  to  the  whole 
Church  of  tlie  Reformation.  These  common  bonds  of  friendship 
and  nmtual  priceless  inheritances  are  stronger  than  language  ties 
and  national  boundaries,  and  should  operate  as  conjoining  influ- 
ences, in  spite  of  linguistic  and  national  divisions. 

These  obstacles  can  never  again  be  as  potent  in  our  Church  as 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  303 

they  have  been  in  the  past.  They  are  losing  their  power  of 
cleavage  and  their  ancient  capacity  for  perpetuating  divisions. 

Time  and  the  Divine  alchemy  of  God's  grace  are  dissolving 
these  old  linguistic  difficulties,  and  will  make  new  combinations 
of  peoples  and  tongues  as  we  pass  along  the  highway  of  our  un- 
foldiug  destiny  in  this  new  world  in  which  we  live. 

Again,  there  is  no  greater  obstacle  in  the  xoay  oj  "Co-ojieration" 
than  the  real  and  supposed  divergencies  of  doctrinal  interpretations 
and  differences  in  church  practices  that  exist  between  disagreeing 
bodies  of  Lutherans. 

Viewing  each  other  at  a  distance  with  the  mystifying  influ- 
ences of  suspicion  and  prejudice  overhanging,  things  are  not 
seen  in  their  true  form  and  color.  Misconception  follows ;  mis- 
judgment  is  formed ;  wrong  statements  and  criticism  are  given 
forth ;  accusation  and  acrimonious  answer  succeed  each  other, 
and  thus  crimination  and  recrimination  go  on  erecting  appar- 
ently impassable  barriers  between  hostile  camps  of  those  who 
should  align  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  a  common  enemy. 

That  there  are  differences  of  view  is  neither  right  nor  prudent 
to  deny.  But  it  may  be  declared  with  truth  that  any  dissent 
from  the  fimdamental  doctrines  of  historic  Lutheran  ism  existing 
is  confined  to  the  minority  within  these  bodies,  a  minority,  the 
size  of  Avhicli  may  be  uncertain  at  times,  but  that  it  is  an  ever- 
shrinking  minority  is  beyond  question. 

Nothing  can  be  more  certain  as  a  movement  in  our  Church 
to-day,  than  that  the  Lutheranism,  not  of  Calvin  or  AVesley,  but 
of  Luther,  is  overwhelmingly  triumphant  in  all  of  the  bodies  here 
represented.  As  to  differences  which  do  not  touch  essentials  or 
fundamentals,  these  should  not  count  for  arguments  of  dis- 
paragement by  one  party  or  the  other,  any  more  than  they  did 
with  Luther  himself. 

INIoreover,  if  Christian  charity  is  to  play  any  part  at  all  in  our 
efforts  at  co-opei-ation,  tliat  sweet  angel  of  God  must  be  allowed 
here  to  lead  the  way  to  the  recognition  of  an  historically  ortho- 
dox majority,  as  the  body  representing,  in  a  sufficient  measure, 
the  co-operating  party,  and  to  teach  Christly  forbearance  with 
the  dissenting  minority.     And  if  there   is   an    extreme   minor- 


304  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

ity  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  oppoaiug  the  prevailing  view,  this 
should  nut  count  to  prevent  the  overwhelming  majorities  from 
co-operating  for  mutual  good  in  practical  Christian  work.  It  is 
the  majority  that  represents  the  true  character  of  a  body ;  it  is 
the  majority  that  writes  the  platform,  that  formulates  and  adopts 
the  creed;  it  is  the  majority  that  sets  up  the  standard  of  faith 
and  organizes  that  faith  into  living,  pulsating,  miracle-working 
Christian  activities.  It  is  the  majority  that  must  lead  the  high 
and  holy  cause,  if  it  is  ever  to  press  through  the  gates  of  victory 
and  be  crowned  with  universal  reigning. 

Minorities,  by  their  negations,  by  their  protestations,  and  by 
their  pessimistic  forebodings,  elect  themselves  to  lag  behind  and 
to  count  for  nothing  in  the  great  movements  of  the  controlling 
body. 

When  by  large  majorities  three  great  bodies  have  severally 
voted  to  enter  into  co-operation  with  each  other,  along  common 
lines  of  Christian  work,  they  have  proceeded  by  the  rational, 
scriptural  and  providential  method  for  the  attainment  of  the  will 
of  God,  and  the  questionings  of  motives  and  the  misrepre- 
sentations of  individuals,  or  small  dissatisfied  minorities,  should 
not  swerve  them  from  their  high  purpose,  else  the  coming 
together  and  the  rule  of  majorities  of  good  men,  for  the  further- 
ance of  noble  ends,  must  be  forever  abandoned,  and  individual- 
ism with  its  chaos  and  destruction,  be  left  to  disintegrate  the 
Church  and  well-ordered  Christian  society. 

Minorities  have  their  rights,  which  should  always  l)e  respected 
and  guarded,  but  it  is  not  one  of  their  rights  to  rule  the  majority, 
when  all  are  upon  a  line  of  equality.  If  the  majority  would  wait 
for  perfect  unanimity  in  matters  religious,  before  taking  a  for- 
ward step,  the  world  would  be  left  either  to  die  of  intellectual 
and  spiritual  paralysis,  or  to  rot  down  in  its  unchecked,  inherent 
corruptions. 

Again,  at  this  point  it  should  be  observed  that  the  condition  of 
real  and  supposed  difference  of  view  is  promoted  and  greatly  ag- 
gravated by  the  vicious  system  of  personal  and  irresponsible  jour- 
nalism., which  so  largely  jirevails  in  the  different  bodies  of  our 
Church. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  3C5 

Under  our  system  tlio  individual,  ambitious  of  leadership,  or 
desirous  of  promulgating  certain  individual  views,  may  install 
himself  in  the  editor's  chair,  at  the  head  of  a  faction,  and  assume 
to  rei:)resent  the  only  true  Lutheranism,  denouncing  all  who  differ 
from  the  views  of  his  self-constituted  organ  as  false  to  the  true 
faith.  Unfortunately,  there  are  many  in  our  own  churches  who 
take  these  irresponsible  utterances  seriously,  simply  because  these 
individual  sheets  are  stamped  with  the  Lutheran  name.  It  mat- 
ters little  how  extreme,  unsound,  or  un-Lutheran  these  teachings 
may  be,  some  will  be  misled,  others  will  seize  upon  and  attribute 
them  to  the  whole  body,  to  which  the  authors  may  chance  to  be- 
long, and  thus  misunderstand  and  misjudge  the  wdiole  from  an 
exceptional  case.  It  is  largely  through  the  influence  of  these 
extreme,  factional,  irresponsible  journals  that  misjudgment,  sus- 
picion, prejudice  and  divisions  are  created  and  fostered  in  our 
Lutheran  household  of  faith.  At  least  one  of  the  bodies  here 
represented  has  entered  upon  the  solution  of  tins  difHculty  by  a 
concentration  of  the  journals,  professedly  published  in  its  interest, 
into  one  general  organ,  put  forth  under  the  authority  of,  and  re- 
sponsible to,  the  governing  power  of  that  body. 

The  increasing  excellence  of  that  j^aper,  in  every  respect,  bears 
ample  testimony  to  the  wisdom  and  success  of  the  policy. 

A  similar  movement  in  all  our  general  bodies  w'ould  do  a  vast 
deal  toward  removing  misunderstandings,  taking  down  barriers, 
healing  divisions  and  bringing  into  closer  co-operation  Lutheran 
peoples  and  interests  in  this  country. 

It  is  altogether  likely  that  the  individual  organ  would  still  seek 
to  propagate  itself  through  the  frailties  and  perversities  of  human 
nature,  but  its  power,  as  a  supposed  church  organ,  would  begone, 
as  over  against  the  authorized  journal  which  stands  for  the  settled 
faith  and  polity  of  the  denomination. 

And  now,  in  view  of  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  practicability 
and  desirabiUty,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  this  movement,  on  the  other,  wliat  of  this  "  Problem  of  Co- 
operation ?  " 

The  pessimistic  opponent  of  this  cause  has  already  lifted  his 
doleful  cry,  "  "Who  shall  show  us  any  good?" — as  if  evils  that  are 
20 


306  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

hoary  with  age  could  be  cured  in  a  day;  as  if  divisions  that  have 
organized  themselves  into  synods  and  conferences  and  equipped 
Christian  activities  in  the  interest  of  specific  views  and  policies 
could  be  transformed  by  a  series  of  resolutions,  severally  passed, 
by  disagreeing  parties.  Divisions  in  churches  are  not  matters  of 
such  slight  significance,  generally,  that  they  can  be  obliterated  ])y 
a  legislative  act.  While  the  original  causes  of  such  disagreements 
are  often  mere  trifles,  the  accumulated  results  of  agitation  and 
time  usually  build  up  a  barrier  to  subsequent  union  not  easily  or 
quickly  removed. 

This  plan  of  Co-operation  has  been  adopted  in  its  last  details  by 
only  two  of  the  bodies  concerned,  at  their  last  conventions,  the 
remaining  one  having  yet  to  meet  and  take  final  action  ;  never- 
theless, there  are  those,  who  were  prophets  of  evil  from  the  be- 
ginning, gainsaying  the  movement  because  miracles  have  not 
already  been  wrought  in  changing  the  views  of  other  bodies  into 
their  own,  and  because  these  bodies  have  not  thrown  their  distin- 
guishing peculiarities  to  the  winds  and  rushed  into  the  arms  of 
their  hitherto  objectionable  brethren,  into  a  kind  of  emotional 
helieve-nothincj-in-pariicular-wiion,  only  to  separate  the  wider 
wlien  the  gush  is  over.  Union  comes  not  by  such  nineteenth  cen- 
tury superficial  emotionalism.  Continued  education,  patient 
waiting  and  God's  Spirit  are  the  only  fectors  that  can  compose 
great  difierences  and  difficulties,  such  as  have  put  asunder  breth- 
ren of  the  same  faith,  and  bring  them  again  into  lasting  harmony. 

It  irf  along  the  line  of  this  educational  and  gracious  culture  that 
this  conference  is  held  ;  to  this  end,  these  discussions ;  for  this 
purpose,  these  fraternal  comminglings  and  free  interchange  of 
views,  and  these  and  similar  influences,  if  continued,  as  sure  as 
human  minds  and  hearts  are  impressible,  and  as  sure  as  the 
Truth  is  omnipotent,  must  close  old  chasms  and  open  gates  of 
gold,  by  and  by,  for  our  entering  into,  not  the  dream-land,  but 
the  reality  of  Lutheran  reunion. 

We  are  already  finding  that  so  narrow  is  the  line  of  sei>aration 
that  we  can  clasp  hands  across  its  bounds,  and  our  hearts  that 
had  been  so  long  well-nigh  pulseless  of  sympathy  for  each  other 
are  ready  to  say,  "Is  there  not  a  mistake  somewhere?     Are  no 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  307 

these  the  true  brethren  ?  Is  not  here  the  self-same  faith  that  was 
nailed  to  the  Castle  Church  Door  at  Wittenberg,  that  was  spoken 
into  immortality  at  Worms,  that  was  translated  from  the  Bible 
in  Wartburg,  and  that  at  Augsburg  became  the  mother  of  Pro- 
testant Christianity  in  the  immortal  confession?"  Y'es,  these  are 
the  questions  that  our  hearts  ask  us  as  we  look  into  each  other's 
faces  and  hear  each  other's  testimony  when  we  meet  on  these 
fraternal  terms. 

The  problem  of  "Co-operation"  will  be  favorably  wrought  out, 
if  Patience  is  permitted  "  to  have  her  perfect  work."  There  are 
influences  operating  in  our  Church,  silent  and  unseen,  chainless 
as  gravitation,  and  as  sure,  which  are  bearing  all  things  toward 
a  common  centre  before  which  all  these  old  obstacles  will  become 
as  the  thin  air  and  will  some  day  ensphere  and  solidify  the  Luth- 
eran Church  now  in  fragments.  Say  not,  "O  dreamer,  dispel 
thy  delusions,"  but  look  rather  toward  the  gates  of  the  morning; 
for  even  now,  all  the  East  is  red,  and  the  rosy  fingers  of  coming 
day  are  turning  back  the  curtains  of  darkness !  And  when  we 
shall  have  gone  within  the  shining  gates,  may  be,  ere  while,  in 
some  way,  there  will  ftdl  on  our  quickened  ear  the  long-expected 
message,  "  They  are  all  one,"  and  the  sweet  dream  of  Earth  will 
have  been  fulfilled,  and  the  waiting  heart  will  say, — "  It  is 
enough !     It  is  enough  !  " 

REMARKS. 

After  the  reading  of  the  above  papers,  Dr.  L.  E.  Albert,  speaking  for 
the  General  Synod,  made  a  few  closing  remarks,  giving  his  impressions 
of  the  convention  and  expressing  his  hopes  for  the  future.  He  said : 
We  have  listened  to  a  number  of  first-class  essays,  and  there  has  been 
manifest  tlir()iighout  all  the  discussions  a  most  kindly  feeling.  What 
now  shall  we  do  to  promote  the  cause  of  union  in  the  future?  We  are 
apt  to  be  enthusiastic  while  the  sessions  last  and  to  fall  back  into  the 
old  habits  of  uon- fraternity  when  they  are  over.  Let  us  believe  that 
union  can  be  accomplished.  Faith  is  necessary  to  it.  If  I  were  at 
the  head  of  an  army  and  wanted  to  find  a  commander  who  would  take 
a  certain  stronghold  of  the  enemy,  I  should  select  one  who  would  say, 
"  I  believe  it  can  be  taken,"  not  one  who  doubted  it.  And  so,  if  union 
of  spirit  and  practice  is  to  come,  we  must  begin  with  faitli  in  such 
union.     When  Spurgeon  was  a  youth,  some  one  placed  his  hand  on 


308  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

his  head  aud  said,  "  You  will  some  day  be  the  greatest  preacher  in  the 
most  iufluential  church  in  London."  Those  words  may  have  had 
much  to  do  with  Spurgeon's  later  success.  Great  things  are  possible 
where  there  is  faith.  Hitherto  we  have  been  too  prone  to  believe 
unkind  things  of  each  other.  Let  us  henceforth  not  believe  half  of 
what  we  hear  said  against  each  other.  Let  us  rebuke  the  lault-linding 
spirit  and  recognize  each  other  as  Christians. 

Dr.  F.  V.  N.  Painter  said :  In  the  South  we  have  great  confidence 
in  the  possibility  of  co-operation.  According  to  an  old  maxim, 
"Seeing  is  believing."  South  of  the  Potomac  we  have  the  same 
difi'erences  that  exist  north  of  the  Potomac.  Some  of  our  ministers 
cordially  accept  all  the  Symbolical  Books ;  others  have  misgivings 
about  articles  in  the  Augustana.  Some  use  the  Common  Service  in 
full ;  others  do  not  use  it  at  all.  Some  admit  only  Lutheran  commu- 
nicants to  the  Lord's  table;  others  welcome  all  true  believers  in 
Christ.  Yet  there  are  no  parties  among  us.  We  feel  that  the  points 
of  agreement  are  far  more  numerous  and  far  more  vital  than  the 
points  of  difterence.  Hence,  at  our  Synodical  meetings,  we  shake 
hands  in  fraternal  greeting,  and  heartily  unite  in  supporting  our  mis- 
sion work,  our  Orphan  Home,  and  our  other  Church  interests.  The 
existing  state  of  things  in  the  United  Synod  is  not,  to  be  sure,  an 
ideal  one.  But  it  shows  clearly  that  earnest  Christian  men,  while  dif- 
fering in  non-essential  points  of  feith  and  practice,  can  still  stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  doing  the  work  to  which  the  Lord  has  called 
them. 

Dr.  Krotel,  speaking  for  the  General  Council,  said :  After  meet- 
ing together  here  for  three  days  and  listening  to  so  many  good  things, 
so  many  sound  Lutheran  sentiments  concerning  the  Confessions,  it  is 
natural  we  should  feel  oui-selves  to  be  on  the  verge  of  enthusiasm  and 
ready  to  unite  in  the  old  hymn,  "  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds."  At  the 
Eeading  Convention  in  18(56,  called  for  a  similar  purpose,  after  a  long 
and  harmonious  discussion,  we  united  in  the  well-known  hymn,  "  Now 
thank  we  all  our  God."  But  we  found  afterward  that  we  were  not  so 
fully  agreed  as  we  thought.  The  harmony  was  soon  disturbed  and  we 
drew  asunder.  We  have  every  reason  to  congratulate  ourselves,  and 
particularly  the  Committee,  on  the  auspicious  ]>eginning  made  towards 
a  closer  union.  I  confess  that  at  first  1  had  my  doubts  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  committee's  management ; — there  seemed  to  be  too  many 
topics  and  too  little  time  for  discussion  ; — but  to  my  surprise,  the  Con- 
vention was  not  only  largely  attended,  but  the  papers  and  the  discus- 
sions such  as  in  the  fullest  niciisure  to  justify  the  Committee's  course. 
I  cherish  the  hope  that  these  Conferences  will  be  repeated  in  the  near 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  309 

future  and  that  such  subjects  will  be  selected  as  will  go  more  to  the 
root  of  our  dilfercnces  in  the  triangular  house  which  is  here  repre- 
sented. I  would  suggest  that  we  thank  the  Committee  for  its  admira- 
ble work,  and  that  we  tiike  steps  to  insure  another  Conference  in  the 
near  future ;  that  such  subjects  be  selected  as  ought  to  be  more  openly 
and  frankly  discussed,  subjects  not  so  numerous,  so  as  to  allow  more 
time  for  their  consideration  on  the  floor.  What  we  need  is  discussion, 
to  fight  out  our  differences,  if  you  please,  in  love  ;  but  let  us  use  the 
Sword  of  the  Spirit  in  this  triangular  fight.  Our  heart's  desire  is  a 
united  Church  on  the  old  foundation,  a  oneness  both  of  faith  and 
practice. 

Dr.  Owen  said :  Dr.  Krotel  hoped  that  this  Committee,  or  another 
one,  would  arrange  for  a  Conference,  where  the  topics  would  allow  a 
discussion  of  the  differences  existing  in  the  General  Bodies.  He  said, 
"  Let  us  put  on  the  Gospel  armor,  having  our  feet  shod  with  the  pre- 
paration of  the  Gospel,  and  let  us  discuss  these  questions,  meeting 
argument  with  argument,"  etc.  I  replied  that  "  the  Committee  had 
considered  that  matter  very  carefially.  If  brethren  would  really  put 
on  the  Gospel  Armor,  and  meet  each  other,  thus  panoplied,  there 
would  be  no  danger;  but,  unfortunately,  brethren  sometimes  put  on 
quite  a  different  armor,  and  called  it  the  '  Gospel  Armor.'  The  Com- 
mittee, in  arranging  the  program,  selected  such  topics  as  would  not  be 
likely  to  call  out  a  discussion  of  these  differences.  We  did  not  think 
it  wise  to  arrange  differently  for  this  first  Conference.  We  believed 
that  the  time  would  come  when  it  might  be  proper  to  do  this,  but  not 
now.  We  gave  to  the  Conference  a  carefully  selected  program,  and 
we  hoped,  and  believed,  that  the  brethren  would  do  just  wliat  we  all 
expect  to  do  to-night  at  the  reception,— to  '  eat  what  is  set  before  us, 
asking  no  questions  for  conscience  sake.'  " 

THE  CHILD  CATECIIUMEXATE. 

BY  G.  U.  WENNER,  DD. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  give  an  account  of  an  institution  whicli  was 
of  immense  importance  in  the  formative  periods  of  tlie  Cluirch, 
but  which,  excepting  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of  the  Fatherland, 
has  largely  been  supplanted  by  other  and  inferior  methods.  Its 
principles,  it  is  true,  are  admitted,  but,  unless  I  greatly  mistake, 
its  practice  in  this  country  is  almost  unknown.  The  name  "  cate- 
chumen "  is  sometimes  applied  to  persons  who  attend  a  course  of 
cateclietical  lectures  on  themes  connected  with  the  catecliism,  or 


310  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

^Yho  tire  eugiiged  in  committing  to  memory  a  portion  of  the 
catechism.  Both  of  these  methods  have  a  slender  connection  with 
the  iiistuiical  catechumenate,  but  the  connection  is  in  the  name 
rather  than  in  the  tiling.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  subject  is 
generally  ignored  in  our  Practical  Theology,  and  that  the  students 
who  are  graduated  from  the  theological  seminaries  have  but  little 
more  than  a  theoretical  knowledge  of  it. 

I  desire  to  make  a  plea  for  the  restoration  of  this  institution, 
or  at  least  to  raise  the  question  whether  some  of  its  features  are 
not  among  the  things  which  the  Church  in  America  greatly 
needs  for  its  well-being.  Some  of  our  churches,  notal)ly  the 
English-speaking  ones,  have  departed  widely  from  the  methods 
of  our  fathers  in  respect  to  this  matter  and  have  adopted  the 
theories  and  methods  of  alien  confessions.  Others,  notably  the 
German-speaking  churches,  have  preserved  the  forms  of  an  in- 
herited institution,  and  pride  themselves  upon  possessing  it,  but 
its  life  and  real  practice  have  to  a  large  extent  been  lost.  How 
else  can  you  account  for  the  thousands  who  are  annually  con- 
firmed in  our  city  churches  after  receiving  the  thinnest  possible 
varnish  of  religious  instruction,  and  who  a  few  months  later 
inevitably  drift  into  the  ranks  of  the  churchless  and  the  worldly? 
To  take  children  of  twelve  and  thirteen  years  of  age  from 
unchristian  households  and  in  six  months  to  prej^are  them  for 
admission  to  the  Holy  Communion,  is  better  than  to  neglect  them 
altogether,  but  to  be  satisfied  with  such  conditions,  and  to  be  will- 
ing to  i)erpetuate  them,  is  a  mark  of  apathy  and  decay. 

A  brief  history  of  the  institution  will  help  us  to  understand 
its  nature.  The  earliest  catechumeimte  was  that  of  the  prose- 
lytes. It  was  based  on  Christ's  command,  "  Go  ye  therefore,  and 
make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  ....  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you."  The  Church  was  a 
missionary  organization,  and  its  aim  was  to  convert  people  to  the 
Christian  view  of  life.  Instruction  was  thought  of  as  an  im- 
plantation of  the  word:  "  Receive  with  meekness  the  implanted 
word  which  is  able  to  save  your  souls."  (James  1 :  21.)  It  pre- 
ceded baptism  and  was  continued  afterward  under  various  grades 
/jf  teachers. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  311 

A  cliief  object  was  to  establish  Christian  usages  and  to  accus- 
tom people  to  them.  In  later  periods,  when  it  became  popular 
to  join  the  Church,  the  term  of  probation  was  extended  to  sev- 
eral years  and  a  rich  liturgical  ceremony  was  prescribed.  This 
was  done,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  substituting  Christian  rites 
in  place  of  the  heathen  mysteries,  and  partly  because  of  the 
myetagogical  or  educational  value  of  the  forms.  There  were 
grades  and  classes  of  catechumens,  chiefly  the  audienie.-<  and  the 
competentes.  At  successive  stages  of  their  instruction  they  were 
admitted  to  new  glimpses  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  service. 
For  example,  the  exact  wording  of  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer  was  not  entrusted  to  them  until  the  close  of  their  proba- 
tion. Much  of  it  was  simply  an  ornate  ritualism,  but  the  under- 
lying purpose  was  that  the  participants  might  be  brought  to  a 
personal  and  heartfelt  confession  of  the  Christian  faith. 

After  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  when  infant  baptism 
became  the  rule,  the  child  catechumeuate  gradually  superseded 
that  of  the  proselytes,  and  under  Gregory  the  Great  it  became 
the  rule  of  the  Church.  A  systematic  training  of  the  baptized 
children  was  aimed  at  and  to  some  extent  secured  through  the 
sponsors,  whose  duty  it  was  to  provide  the  godchildren  with 
religious  instruction  until  they  reached  years  of  discretion  and 
were  able  to  come  to  their  first  confession.  Among  the  pre- 
scribed subjects  were  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the 
Gloria.  In  the  ninth  century  parochial  schools  were  estal)lished 
to  assist  in  the  systematic  Christian  training  of  the  young.  The 
Bible  history  was  largely  given  in  the  form  of  poems,  and  the 
plastic  representations  of  the  churches  of  those  days  aided  much 
in  giving  the  people  a  definite  idea  of  the  story  of  the  Bible. 

But  not  only  Christian  teaching,  Christian  training  also  played 
an  important  part  in  the  work  of  the  Church  at  that  time. 
Rules  of  living  and  the  services  of  the  Cluirch  accustomed  the 
people  to  the  Christian  view  of  life.  Of  special  importance  was 
the  practice  of  private  confession  which  began  to  be  transferred 
from  the  convent  life  to  the  pastoral  care  of  children.  It  con- 
sisted in  the  recitation  of  certain  church  forms,  and  in  instruc- 
tion on  moral  distinctions  on  the  basis  of  Scripture  passages.     It 


312  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

aimed  nho  to  obtain  a  pastoral  view  of  the  state  of  luiiid  aud 
heart  of  the  child.  For  the  purpose  of  individualization  the 
Ten  Coininandiueuts  were  used  as  a  speculum  peccutoruvi.  We 
must  not  omit  to  notice  that  the  imposition  of  penances  gradually 
accustomed  the  people  to  tlie  practice  of  obedience  to  the 
Church's  demands.  The  age  produced  a  number  of  treatises  on 
the  method  of  training  catechumens.  The  most  important  of 
them  is  Gerson's,  on  the  subject  of  "  drawing  the  little  ones  to 
Christ,"  a  work  in  which  the  aim  of  the  catechumenate  is  set 
forth  in  a  substantially  Evangelical  manner.  These  times  are 
sometimes  called  "  the  dark  ages."  But  let  us  not  forget  that 
they  were  periods  when  the  Church  converted  nations  and  brought 
races  under  the  quickening  power  of  Christianity. 

The  Reformation  gave  new  significance  and  character  to  the 
ancient  catechumenate.  At  first  it  was  not  a  catechumenate  for 
children,  but  rather  for  the  whole  people.  Entire  congregations 
had  to  be  instructed  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion.  As  a  ripe 
fruit  of  his  experience  in  preaching,  teaching  and  the  care  of 
souls,  Luther  published  in  1529  his  Small  Catechism,  a  book 
which  ^till  holds  its  place  as  the  fairest  fruit  of  the  catechetical 
literature  of  all  ages.  Its  arrangement  is  Decalogue,  Creed  and 
Lord's  Prayer,  that  is,  Law,  Gospel,  and  the  New  Life,  with  sup- 
plemental chapters  on  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  its 
form  aud  arrangement,  and  even  in  some  of  its  expressions,  it  did 
not  overlook  the  best  results  of  the  preceding  ages.  The  occa- 
sion for  its  publication  was  the  lamentable  condition  of  the  reli- 
gious in.struction  of  children  as  he  found  it  during  a  visitation  of 
the  churches  in  Electoral  Saxon)^  The  book  at  once  became 
exceedingly  popular  and  produced  a  complete  transformation  in 
the  religious  training  of  the  people. 

The  example  set  by  Luther  was  followed  by  the  Reformed, 
who  published  their  Heidelberg  Catechism  in  1563,  and  even  l)y 
the  Romanists  who  published  their  Trent  Catechism  in  1566. 
The  chief  fiiult  of  Luther's  Catechism  was  that  it  was  too  good. 
So  well  adapted  was  it  for  purposes  of  instruction,  that  it  became 
the  almost  exclusive  handbook  for  ministers,  although  Luther's 
own  thought  in  connection  with  it  was  that  it  should  be  the 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  313 

haudbook  for  parents  iu  the  instruction  of  their  children.  Each 
of  its  chapters  is  introduced  by  the  words,  "  In  the  plain  form  in 
which  the  head  of  the  family  should  teach  them  to  his  house- 
hold." 

The  exclusive  use  of  the  catechism  thus  gave  to  instruction 
an  unduly  dogmatic  character.  But  in  Spener's  time,  and  that 
of  the  Pietists,  the  religious  and  pedagogic  importance  of  Bible 
History  came  to  be  understood,  and  since  then  this  form  of  im- 
parting religious  knowledge  has  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the 
catechism.  This  remark  is  true  of  Germany.  In  America,  and 
especially  in  English  churches,  I  am  inclined  to  think  Ave  have 
drifted  into  the  practice  of  the  times  before  Spener.  Only  lately 
have  appeared  signs  of  a  revival  of  intelligent  Bible  study  iu  its 
application  to  Christian  instruction. 

Catechization  sympathized  thoroughly  with  all  the  subsequent 
intellectual  and  religious  movements.  Thus  in  the  days  of  Ra- 
tionalism the  chief  aim  was  usefulness,  not  so  much  the  forma- 
tion of  Christian  character  as  the  training  of  useful  citizens. 
Under  Pestalozzi  the  new  pedagogical  methods  were  introduced, 
and  the  great  changes  produced  a  century  ago  by  the  titanic 
leaders  in  philosophy,  art  and  literature,  left  their  permanent  im- 
pression upon  catechetics  as  well.  It  will  suffice  to  characterize 
the  relation  of  the  catechism  to  present-day  movements  by  sa3'ing 
that  Ritschliau  catechisms  have  already  begun  to  appear,  and 
with  this  statement  I  may  close  the  historical  sketch  which  I 
thought  it  necessary  to  give. 

Two  much  debated  questions  are  incidentally  involved  in  my 
subject.  The  first  is  the  relation  of  the  children  to  the  Church. 
There  are  those  who  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  incapa- 
ble of  influencing  the  undeveloped  spiritual  life  of  a  child, 
and  that  years  of  discretion  must  be  attained  before  we  can 
speak  of  regenerating  influence.  Just  what  the  relation  of  the 
children  to  the  Church  in  such  a  system  is,  I  am  unable  to  dis- 
cover. They  arc  not  Christian,  neither  are  they  heathen.  They 
must  be  in  some  kind  of  a  Protestant  limbus  wfanium.  Many  of 
these  people  retain  the  practice  of  infant  baptism,  but  if  you  ques- 
tion them  closely  they  will  admit  that  they  mean  nothing  by  it. 


314  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

There  are  those  on  the  other  hand  who  believe  that  baptism  is 
more  than  a  mere  symbol,  a  pretty  form  inherited  from  the  past, 
or  a  dedication  of  the  child  to  God  on  the  part  of  the  parents. 
They  believe,  in  the  words  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  that 
"  by  the  right  use  of  this  ordinance,  the  grace  promised  is  not 
only  offered,  but  really  exhibited  and  conferred  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Those  who  thus  believe  in  infant  baptism  hold,  or 
should  huLl,  that  as  tlie  Church  has  baptized  the  children  she  is 
in  duty  bound  to  teach  them.  In  Christ's  command  teaching  is 
correlated  with  baptism,  and  the  Church  is  bound  to  recognize 
the  connection  between  them. 

The  second  question  which  suggests  itself,  not  only  among  our- 
selves, but  especially  in  our  relations  to  other  denominations,  is 
the  best  method  of  making  Christians.  That  it  is  a  question, 
such  paragraphs  as  the  following  abundantly  prove :  A  Chicago 
correspondent  writes  to  a  certain  paper :  "  A  very  prominent  di- 
vine told  me  a  few  days  ago:  '  I  am  compelled  to  leave  my  flock, 
much  against  my  wishes,  not  because  of  lack  of  appreciation  or 
sympathy  on  their  part,  but  because  of  the  extreme  difficulty  I 
find  in  interesting  outsiders.'  " 

Henry  Drummond  speaks  of  the  restlessness  that  characterizes 
our  modern  congregations.  "  Like  the  Athenians  of  old,  they 
are  ever  seeking  after  some  new  thing.  There  is  a  hunger  and 
thirst  among  the  people  for  some  new  sensation.  Yet  withal 
there  is  an  impotence  in  the  pulpit  so  far  as  the  legitimate  results 
of  preaching  are  concerned." 

In  our  own  city  numerous  pulpits  are  vacant,  because  the 
congregations  are  anxious  to  find  some  great  preacher,  one  who 
can  fill  the  pews  and  assure  the  church  treasurer  a  large  and 
steady  income.  And  for  every  vacant  puljjit  in  a  prominent 
church  there  are  hundreds  of  applicants  who  are  willing  to  sacri- 
fice themselves.  And  very  often  they  do  sacrifice  themselves. 
For  a  few  years  later,  with  broken  spirit,  they  retire  to  some 
quiet  place  where  they  may  rest  from  the  unequal  struggle  to 
which  they  were  exposed. 

Our  present-day  forces  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  aiul  the 
edification  of  the  church  are  : 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  315 

First  and  cliiefly,  the  preacher,  religious  essayist  and  homilist 
of  the  regular  pulpit.  The  Tribune  recently  brought  the  follow- 
ing notice  : 

''  Next  Sunday  will  be  the  Rev.  Dr.  's  last  appearance 

for  sometime  in  the  pulpit  of  the Presbyterian  Church." 

While  it  is  true  that  a  reporter  of  a  daily  paper  does  not 
always  appear  to  the  best  advantage  in  his  use  of  ecclesiastical 
phraseology,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  is  quick  to  catch  the 
popular  conception  of  a  situation. 

Then  we  have  secondly  the  evangelist  and  revivalist  for  special 
seasons  and  for  Carnegie  Hall  meetings  and  for  other  places  un- 
tainted by  the  flavor  of  church  associations. 

Thirdly,  the  Sunday  school  teachers,  trained  and  untrained, 
upon  whom  a  large  part  of  the  responsibility  of  the  religious  edu- 
cation of  the  young  rests.  If  family  training  might  be  added  to 
these  as  an  important  factor,  it  would  be  a  delightful  surprise. 

Supplemental  to  these  forces  are  the  Young  People's  Societies  of 
Christian  Endeavor,  Luther  Leagues,  Kings'  Daughters  and  the 
like,  the  great  success  of  which  demonstrates  a  widespread  need. 

Each  of  these  forces  and  all  combined  undoubtedly  have  a 
most  important  place  in  the  economy  of  the  Church,  but  they  can- 
not take  the  place  of  the  catechumenate. 

What  then  is  the  child  catechumenate  ?  What  is  there  in  it 
which  differentiates  it  from  allied  institutions  and  methods? 

It  is  that  institution  of  Christ  and  the  Church  by  which  children 
are  systematically  taught  and  trained  in  such  a  ivay  as  to  prepare 
them  for  a  personal  jMrticipation  in  the  life  and  privileges  of  the 
Christia7i  Church. 

That  it  is  an  institution  of  Christ,  is  argued  from  the  word 
-Tiptlv,  "to  observe,"  in  Christ's  last  command. 

Its  place  in  the  New  Testament  is  seen  from  numerous  jiassages, 
such  as  Galatians  Q  :  Q>,  "  Let  the  catechumen  communicate  to  him 
who  catechises  in  all  good  things."     (Literal  translation.) 

It  involves  two  distinct  functions,  that  of  teaching  and  that  of 
training. 

It  has  a  definite  end,  that  of  making  mature  Christians  out  of 
incipient  believers. 


316  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

It  pursues  a  systematic  method,  leading  step  by  step  to  the 
coniprehcusion  of  that  which  has  been  revealed. 

And  finally,  itisau  institution  0/  the  church;  that  is,  the  Chris- 
tian Church  itself  supplies  the  organ  and  ministry  by  which  the 
YTork  is  carried  on. 

My  plea  for  the  restoration  of  the  Child  Catechumcnate  I  shall 
endeavor  to  enforce  by  a  brief  reference,  1,  to  its  principles,  and 
2,  to  its  practice. 

1.  Pkixciples.  The  importance  of  this  institution  rests  chiefly 
upon  the  duty  which  the  Church  owes  to  the  children  which  have 
been  entrusted  to  its  care.  We  acknowledge  the  claims  of  the 
heathen  whom  we  have  never  seen.  But  here  are  the  little  ones 
crowding  our  doors  and  asking  for  admission  into  the  kingdom. 
Then  again  the  trustful  nature  of  the  child  makes  it  an  unspeak- 
able privilege  to  guide  and  an  easy  task  to  convert  it.  While  we 
recognize  in  them,  too,  the  impress  of  the  fallen  nature,  there  is 
also  that  which  has  been  called  the  anima  naiuraliier  Christiana. 
They  respond  almost  intuitively  to  the  idea  of  God  and  immor- 
tality. The  five-year-old  brother  of  Klopstock  was  found  in  the 
open  field  during  a  terrific  thunder  storm,  and  when  asked  what 
he  was  doing,  he  replied,  "  I  am  praying  to  the  great  God." 

The  Church  is  the  mother  of  education.  But  what  a  humiliat- 
ing position  we  take  when  we  allow  secular  instruction  to  be  given 
in  the  most  scientific  and  efiective  manner,  while  the  subjects  of 
highest  import  are  entrusted  almost  wholly  to  inexpert  hands  and 
to  methods  that  stultify  rather  than  edify  !  A  day-school  teacher 
has  reason  to  dread  the  methods  of  the  religious  instruction 
which  take  off  the  sharp  edge  of  intellectual  perception  on  Sun- 
day and  unfit  the  pupil  for  the  best  work  of  Monday. 

Again,  is  it  wise  to  postpone  the  making  of  special  religious 
impressions  to  a  time  when  the  mind  and  heart  have  long  since 
become  preoccupied,  and  they  are  far  i)ast  the  time  when  the 
germinal  purposes  of  life  are  formed? 

These  statements  are  trite  and  almost  self-evident,  and  yet  to 
most  ministers  everything  else  seems  to  be  of  greater  importance 
than  that  wliich  is  of  supreme  importance  in  their  pastoral  rela- 
tion, the  teaching  and  training  of  the  young.     One  may  go  far  to 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE,  317 

see  the  seminary  whose  curriculum  makes  provision  for  this  end, 
and  whose  students  are  graduated  with  a  practical  knowledge  of 
its  importance. 

2.  Thk  Practice.  It  has  been  well  said  that  if  you  wish  to 
train  a  child  properly,  you  must  begin  with  the  giaudparents. 
The  importance  of  this  principle  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that 
during  the  first  five  years,  the  most  important  of  all  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  child,  the  Church  can  iuflueuce  the  child  but  very 
little  except  through  its  parents.  And  yet  it  is  of  this  age  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  bishop  said  :  "  Give  us  the  children  for  the 
first  six  years,  and  we  care  not  who  gets  them  afterward." 

With  the  sixth  year,  the  child  begins  to  enter  into  public  rela- 
tion with  the  Church  and  its  services,  and  the  minister  must  be 
prepared  to  meet  this  new  relation.  There  will,  of  course,  be  dif- 
ferent grades  and  classes.  For  convenience  sake  we  will  assume 
the  following  grades  :  The  primary  class,  for  children  from  five 
to  eight  years  of  age ;  the  secondary  class,  for  children  from  eight 
to  twelve  ;  the  preparatorians,  from  twelve  to  thirteen,  and  the 
catechumens  proper,  the  older  children. 

I  may  perhaps  be  met  by  the  objection  that  my  position  im- 
plies the  necessity  of  establishing  that  un-American  institution, 
the  parochial  school.  Whether  it  is  un-American  or  not  is  an 
open  question,  as  well  as  whether  the  conditions  under  which  we 
live  render  it  practicable  to  establish  the  parochial  school.  A 
little  food  for  tliought,  how^ever,  is  afforded  by  the  statement  that 
the  parochial  school  churches  of  New  York  City  have,  during 
the  past  decade,  sent  sixty  of  their  boys  into  the  Lutheran 
ministry. 

But  I  have  not  argued  in  favor  of  parochial  schools,  and  that 
question  is  one  that  has  no  necessary  connection  with  the  one  we 
are  considering. 

The  grades  or  classes  which  I  have  pi'oposed  may  be  formed, 
in  cities  or  towns  at  least,  among  the  children  who  attend  the 
public  schools,  by  meeting  them  after  school  hours,  say  at  four 
or  five  o'clock  in  the  aflernoon.  The  younger  children  might 
meet  once  a  week,  the  older  ones  twice  or  three  times. 

The  topics  or  subjects. — For  the  little  ones  the  Bible  Stories, 


318  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

fifteen  from  the  Old  Testament  and  fifteen  from  the  New,  may 
cover  the  year's  curriculum.  Add  to  this  a  few  simple  prayers 
and  hymns  and  you  have  laid  a  fair  foundation  for  your  work. 

For  the  second  grade,  extend  the  work  of  the  first  grade  in 
Bible  History,  and  hymns,  and  lay  the  foundation  of  doctrine  by 
introducing  explanations  of  the  Ten  Commandments  and  of  the 
Creed. 

For  the  third  grade,  extend  the  scheme  of  the  previous  grades 
with  the  addition  of  the  Church  Service  and  with  stories  from 
Chiwch  History. 

For  the  fourth  grade,  amplify  the  preceding,  emphasize  the 
doctrine  and  introduce  the  children  into  some  practical  forms  of 
Christian  work. 

It  is  evident  that  in  order  to  do  this  work  properly,  the  minis- 
ter must  be  a  pedagogue ;  that  is,  the  instruction  should  be  such 
as  to  be  intellectually  stimulating.  But  its  chief  charm  and 
power  is  derived  from  the  pastoral  relation  which  the  instructor 
holds,  and  which  should  make  it  spiritually  quickening.  It 
is  true  that  not  every  minister  is  a  pedagogue.  But  he  ought 
to  be,  and  in  the  Church  of  the  future,  as  in  the  Church  of  the 
past,  pedagogical  skill  and  training  ought  to  be  considered  a  part 
of  the  necessary  outfit  of  every  minister. 

But  the  principal  value  of  the  catechumenate  is  in  the  opportu- 
nity it  affords  to  train  the  child  ;  that  is,  to  accustom  it  to  the 
duties  and  practice  of  the  Christian  life.  Thus  it  should  be  early 
taught  to  go  to  church — at  first  to  the  children's  services,  but  as 
soon  as  possible  to  the  great  congregation.  It  should  be  taught 
the  words  of  the  silent  prayer  when  entering  the  house  of  God, 
the  significance  of  the  various  parts  of  the  service,  not  excepting 
the  offertory,  where  the  money  put  on  the  plate  is  only  an  out- 
ward exprci^sion  of  the  sentiment,  "My  God,  accept  my  heart  this 
day,  and  make  it  always  thine."  For  tlie  purpose  of  bringing 
up  intelligent  hearers  I  have  found  it  indispensable  to  require 
from  the  two  older  grades  a  written  report  of  the  sermon.  The 
habit  of  so  listening  to  a  sermon  as  to  fix  its  chief  points  and 
thoughts  in  tlie  mind,  is  one  that  nmst  be  cultivated.  If  you  do 
not  believe  this,  ask  some  of  your  most  intelligent  children  next 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  319 

week   to   give   you  an  outline  of  the  sermon  which  they  last 
heard. 

A  chief  means  of  emphasizing  and  carrying  out  the  principles 
of  Christian  training  is  the  private  and  personal  interview  with 
the  catechumen.  They  called  it  private  confession  in  the  olden 
time,  but  you  may  call  it  by  any  other  name  if  it  will  smell 
sweeter.  The  essential  thing  about  it  is  to  accustom  the  child  to 
a  confidential  and  trusting  relation  to  its  pastor  in  spiritual  mat- 
ters. The  subjects  to  be  treated  are  the  habit  of  private  prayer, 
the  questions  of  Christian  conduct  in  its  relations  to  parents, 
brothers  and  sisters  and  other  children,  and  especially  in  the 
matter  of  penitence  for  sin,  faith  in  a  personal  Saviour  and  of  the 
right  steps  in  the  new  life  of  obedience. 

Those  of  you  who  have  never  tried  this  method  would  be 
amazed  at  the  absence,  in  many  cases,  of  the  most  fundamental 
and  primary  Christian  conceptions,  and  that,  too,  among  those 
where  you  took  the  Christian  view  of  life  for  granted.  The 
theology  of  most  of  them  is,  "  You  must  be  good  if  you  want  to 
get  to  heaven."  And,  "  keeping  the  commandments  is  the  way 
to  be  saved."  But  when  in  such  pastoral  intercourse  it  becomes 
your  privilege  to  unlock  the  heart  .to  the  gifts  of  the  Gospel,  what 
hearers  you  will  have  for  the  pulpit  message !  You  look  down 
into  eyes  that  respond  with  grateful  eagerness  to  every  word 
you  say. 

A  word  in  auswer  to  the  objection  that  will  be  raised,  that  one 
cannot  find  time  for  so  much  additional  work.  To  begin  with, 
drop  all  those  visits  of  ceremony  that  go  by  the  name  of  pastoral 
calls.  Provided  it  is  necessary  to  do  so,  but  it  may  not  be  neces- 
sary. The  scheme  I  have  presented  requires  only  five  afternoon 
hours  each  week,  and  they  will  be  hours  of  great  joy  and  profit. 
And  while  your  efforts  are  directed  mainly  to  the  children,  you 
will,  at  the  same  time,  be  binding  the  parents  to  you  with  strong 
cords  of  affection  and  reverence. 

But  a  wise  organizer  and  pastor  will  readily  be  able  to  modif)- 
the  system  in  such  a  way  as  to  distribute  the  work  and  make  it 
easy  and  profitable  for  all.  We  need  to  get  rid  of  many  of  our 
hierarchical  notions  and  to  introduce  a  larjjer  diacouate  into  our 


320  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

church  work.  Some  of  us  have  school  teachers  and  teaching 
deaconesses  who  can  be  entrusted  with  part  of  this  work.  But  in 
all  of  our  churches  there  are  men  and  women  with  gifts  and 
graces  that  would  make  them  excellent  helpers  in  this  churchly 
work  of  bringing  the  little  ones  to  Christ  and  training  them  up 
for  His  service.  Chief  among  these  helpers  are  the  parents  of 
the  children,  especially  so  far  as  the  home  life  and  the  practice  of 
home  duties  are  concerned.  But  even  for  the  week-day  hours  at 
the  church,  I  feel  sure  that  there  is  niuch  undeveloped  material 
which  could  be  utilized  for  such  work  as  I  have  indicated.  And 
what  better  opportunity  th.an  this  could  be  found  for  bringing 
into  practice  those  duties  which  many  Lutheran  liturgies  pre- 
scribe for  the  sponsors,  when  they  direct  the  minister  to  exhort 
those  who  have  presented  the  child  for  baptism  in  the  following 
words:  "I  now  admonish  you  who  have  done  so  charitable  a 
work  to  this  child  in  its  baptism,  that  ye  diligently  and  faithfully 
teach  it  the  Ten  Commandments,  that  thercliy  it  may  learn  to 
know  the  will  of  God ;  also  the  Christian  Faitl;,  set  forth  in  the 
Creed,  whereby  we  obtain  grace,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  and  likewise  the  Lord's  Prayer,  that  it  may  call 
upon  God,  and  find  help  to  withstand  the  devil,  and  lead  a 
Christian  life,  till  God  shall  perfect  that  which  He  hath  now 
begun  in  it,  and  bring  it  to  life  everlasting," 

The  point  to  empliasize  is  that  it  is  a  systematic  work,  con- 
ducted by  the  Church,  proceeding  from  certain  acknowledged 
premises  and  advancing  by  approved  methods  to  a  certain  end. 
Or,  to  return  to  the  definition,  "It  is  an  institution  of  Christ  and 
the  Church,  by  which  children  are  systematically  taught  and 
trained  in  such  a  way  as  to  prepare  them  for  a  2>crsonal participation 
in  the  life  and  the  privileges  of  the  Christian  Church." 

With  the  restoration  of  this  institution  in  a  practical  way  in 
our  churches,  tlic  Sunday-school  itself  would  quickly  assume  a 
more  natural  and  more  important  relation  to  the  life  of  the 
Church.  We  should  no  longer  be  dependent  upon  the  unsys- 
tematic methods  of  instruction  on  subjects  where  only  the  best 
methods  are  barely  good  enough,  and  the  so-called  Sunday-school 
would  become  a  Children's  Service  in  which  the  knowledge  gained 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE.  321 

(luring  the  week  would  be  fused  into  sweet  experience  under  the 
influence  of  warm-hearted  Christian  teachers  and  superinten- 
dents. 

And  a  new  meaning  would  also  be  given  to  the  instruction 
preparatory  to  confirmation.  Instead  of  a  toilsome  drilling  into 
the  children  of  the  words  and  punctuation  marks  of  Luther's  Small 
Catechism  and  torturing  them  with  undigested  material  that  has 
to  be  committed  to  memory,  it  would  be  a  simple  review  of  sub- 
jects with  which  the  children  have  long  since  been  made  ac- 
quainted. The  nature  of  the  instruction  would  therefore  be 
entirely  different.  It  would  be  a  warm,  spiritual  presentation  of 
the  truths  of  the  catechism,  would  cover  a  comparatively  brief 
period  of  time  and  would  have  the  sole  purpose  of  preparing  the 
children  for  a  proper  participation  in  the  privileges  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  would  be  a  sort  of  Lutheran  revival  season  in  which 
others  than  the  children  would  be  glad  to  take  i:)art  because  of 
the  stimulating  and  quickening  influences  that  would  be  sure  to 
accompany  such  a  course  of  instruction. 

This  is  an  age  of  progress.  But  it  is  an  age  of  repristination 
as  well.  From  many  an  ecclesiastical  wall  the  modern  stucco 
has  been  torn  off,  and  the  fair  lines  of  its  ancient  architectural 
beauty  have  been  restored.  A  generation  has  grown  up  that 
understands  and  loves  the  stately  services  of  our  fathers. 

All  around  us  voices  are  heard  proclaiming  their  dissati-jfac- 
tion  with  the  meagre  results  of  merely  Sunday-school  methods  in 
building  up  the  Church.  Why  should  we  not  in  this  field  also 
return  to  a  system  which  has  stood  the  test  of  a  decade  of  Chris- 
tian centuries  ? 
21 


322 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


REGISTER   OF    NAMES. 


The  followi7ig  list  of  names  is  a  complete  register  of  those  clergymen  who 
were  present,  and  of  the  students  and  laymen  and  ladies  whose  names  were 
handed  to  the  secretaries : 

CLERICAL. 


Albkrt,  Chas.  S.,  D.D.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Albert,  L.  E.,  D.D.,  Germautown,  I'a. 
Altpeter,  Peter,  Catawissa,  Pa. 
Andres,  W.  J. ,  Bath,  Pa. 
Badm,  AVm.  M.,  D.D.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Baum,  W.  M.,  Jr.,  Canajoharie,  N.  Y. 
Bauslin,  Prof.  D.  H.,  D.D.,  Spring- 
field, O. 
Bell,  E.  K.,  D.D.,  Mansfield,  O. 
Berkemeyer,  F.,  Sellersville,  Pa. 
Bertolet,  U.  S.  G.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Blomgren,  C.  a.,  Ph.D.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Brownmiller,  E.  S.,  D.D.,  Reading,  Pa. 
Cassaday,  E.  R.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Clauss,  C.  D.,  Leacock,  Pa. 
Conrad,  V.  L.,  Pli.D ,  D.D.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Cooper,  C  J.,  Ailentown,  Pa. 
Coover,  M.,  Ardniore,  Pa. 
Cres-sman,  J.  J.,  Kiitztown,  Pa. 
Crigler,  J.  F.,  Lutherville,  Md. 
Critchlow,  G.  W.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Delk,  E.  H.,  Hagerstown,  Md. 
DiETTERicn,  J.  E.,  FlourtDwn,  Pa. 
DiMM,  Prof.  J.  R.,  D.D  ,  Selinsgrove,  Pa. 
DiziNGER,  J.  C,  Camden,  N.  J. 
DoERR,  F.,  Wihningtoii,  Del. 
Drach,  Geo.,  Phihulolpliia,  Pa. 
Dunbar,  W.  11.,  D.D.,   Baltimore,  Md. 
Eariiart,  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa 
Eisexhardt,  G.  C,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Ellis,  W.  J.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
E1.SON,  H.  W.,  Pli.D.,  Phila(U^lphia,  Pa 
Endebs,  G.  W.,  D.D.,  York,  Pa. 


Erdman,  a.  E.,  Nazareth,  Pa. 
Everett,  T.  T.,  D.D.,  York,  Pa. 
Faber,  Geo.  E.,  Pha^nixville.  Pa. 
Fastnacht,  a.  G.,  York,  Pa. 
Fegley,  Prof.  H.  N.,  Mechanicsburg, 

Pa. 
Fischer,  C.  G.,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 
Fishburn,  J.,  Lebanon,  Pa. 
Fluck,  J.  F.  C,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Fox,  J.  B.,  Slatiuiiton,  Pa. 
Francis,  S.  A.  K.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Freas,  Wm.  S.,  D.D.,  Baltimore,  INld. 
Fry%  Chas.  L.,  Lancaster,  Pa. 
Fry,  Frank  F.,  Bethlehem,  Pa. 
Fry,  Prof.  J.,  D.D.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Gladhill,  J.  T.,  Consholiockei),  Pa. 
GoEDEL,  C,  Philadelphia,  I'a. 
Grahn,  E.  M.,  Easton,  Pa. 
Grahn,  H.,  D.D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Groff,  J.  R.,  Doylestown,  Pa. 

Haas,  G.  C.  F.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Haas,  J.  A.  W.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Hafer,  L.  B.,  Fort  Washington,  Pa. 

IIamma,  M.  W.,  D.D.,  Washington,  D.C. 

Haktman,  a.  S.,  D.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Hay,  C.  E.,  D.D.,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 

Heilman,  a.  M.,  Siirew.sbury,  Pa- 

Heilman,  p.  a.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Heindel,  J.  E.,  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 

IlEI.•-sLEl^,  J.,  Trtnton,  N.  J. 

HiRZKL,  C.  J.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Hoffman,  I.  C,  Chester,  Pa. 

Holman,  y.  a.,  D  D.,P)iiladeli>liia,  Pa. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


323 


HOPPE,  C.  F.  W.,  Bethleliem,  Pa. 
Horn,  Edward  T.,  D.D.,  Reading,  Pa. 
Hudson,  W.  G.  dk  A.,  Catasauqua,  Pa. 
HuNTON,  "\V.  L.,  Wilkesbarre,  Pa. 
Huntzin(;er,  F.  K.,  Reading,  Pa. 
Ibach,  W.  O  ,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Jacobs,  Prof.  H.  E.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Mt. 

Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Kaehlek,  F.  a.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Keedy,   Prop.   C.  L.,  M.D.,  Hagers- 

town,  Md. 
Keiter,  W.  D.  C,  Bethlehem,  Pa. 
Kelly,  W.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Kercher,  G.  a.,  Falls,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Killinger,  E.  B.  ,  Trenton,  N.  J. 
Klinefelter,  F.,  Lionville,  Pa. 
Klingler,  Paul  (t.,  Easton,  Pa. 
Kollee,  J.  C.,  D.D.,  Hanover,  Pa. 
Krotel,    G.    F.,    D.D.,    LL.D.,    East 

Orange,  N.  J. 
Ktjder,  C.  F.,  Siegfried,  Pa. 
Kuhlman,  L.,  D.D.,  Frederick,  Md. 
KUNZMAN,  J.  C,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Lambert,  Jas.  F.,  Catasauqua,  Pa. 
Lambert,  \V.  A.,  Bethleln-in,  Pa. 
Leibensperger,  a.  W.,  Lititz,  I'a. 
Lindenstruth,  L.,  Mauch  Chunk,  Pa. 
Loos,  Geo.  C. ,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Lynch,  R.  B.,  Dublin,  Pa. 
McClanahan,  G.  W.,  Strasburg,  Pa. 
McConnell,  C.  L.,  Mitflinburg,  Pa. 
Main,  J.  H.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Manhart,  F.  p.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Neudewitz,  E.  E.,  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 
Nickel,  W.,  Applebachsville,  Pa. 
NiccM,  Prof.  J. ,  D.  D.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Niedecker,  J.  E.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Ochsenford,  S.  E.,  D.D.,  Seliusgrove, 

Pa. 
Offermann,  F.  H.,  Camden,  N.  J. 
Ort,  Prof.  S.  A.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Spring- 
field, O. 
Owen,  S.  W.,  D.D.,  Hagerstown,  Md. 


Painter,  Prof.  F.  V.  N.,  D.D.,  Salem, 

Va. 
Parson,  W.  E.,  D.D.,  Washington,  DC. 
Passavant,  W.  A.,  Jr.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Patter.s()n,  R.  L.  ,  Union  Bridge,  Md. 
Pflueger,  O.  E.,  Elizabeth ville.  Pa. 
Ramer,  A.  L  ,  Ph.D.,  Scranton,  Pa. 
Rath,  Myron  O.,  Allentnwn,  Pa. 
Reed,  D.  L.,  Allegheny,  Pa. 
Reese,  G.  C,  Chestnut  Hill,  Pa. 
Reiter,  D.  H.,  Richland  Centre,  Pa. 
Rextz,  W.  F.,  Pottsville,  Pa. 
Repass,  S.  A.,  D.D.,  Allentown,  Pa. 
Rice,  J.  M.,  Scioto,  Pa. 
Richards,  H.  R.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Rickert,  W.  11.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Ritter,  I.  B.,  Emaus,  Pa. 
Ritter,  Jer.  H.,  Bath,  Pa. 
Roeder,  R.  D.,  Norristown,  Pa. 
Sandt,  C.  M.  ,  Huntingdon,  Pa. 
Sandt,  G.  W..  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Sarver,  J.,  D.D.,  New  Stanton,  Pa. 
ScHAEFFER, Wm.  Ashmead,  DD.,  Ger- 

mantown.  Pa. 
ScHANTZ,  F.  J.  F.,  D.D.,  Myei-stown,  Pa. 
Sciieele,  H.  F.,  St.  Joseph,  Mo. 
Scheffer,  J.  A.,  Allentown,  Pa. 
ScHMAUCK,  Theodore  E.,  D.D.,  Leba- 
non, Pa. 
Schmidt,  R.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Schmoyer,  M.  B.,  East  Mauch  Ciiunk, 

Pa. 
ScHOLL,  Geo.,  D.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Skip,  Prof.  Theo.  L.,  D.D.,  Allentown, 

Pa. 
Seis-s,  Jos.   A.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.H.D., 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Shannon,  S.  G.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Shkeleigh,  M.,  D.D.,  Fort  Washington, 

Pa. 
SniNDLE,  n.  C.,  Philadclpliia,  Pa. 
SiBOLE,  E.  E.,  D.D.,  Pliiladelphia,  Pa. 
Svbole,  J.  L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


324 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


SiEBOTT,  H.  D.  E. ,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Sieger,  P.  Geo.,  Lancaster,  Pa. 
SiNGMASTER,  J.  A.,  D.D. ,  Allentown,  Pa. 
Smith,  L.  L.,  Strashurg,  Va. 
Smith,  O.  P.,  D.D.,  Pottstown,  Pa. 
Snyder,  J.  M.,  Pliiladelphia,  Pa. 
Spaeth,  Prof.  A.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Mt. 

Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Spieker,  Prof.  G.  F.,  D.D.,  Mt.  Airy, 

Phila.,  Pa. 
Stall,  S.,  D.D.,  Bala,  Pa. 
Steck,  W.  H.,  Coatesville,  Pa. 
Steinhaeuser,  J.,  Allentown,  Pa. 
Stouoh,  W.  L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Studebakeu,  A.  IL,  D.D.,  Baltimore, 

Md. 
Stump,  J.,  Phillipsburg,  N.  J. 


Tate,  M.  L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Waidkltch,  J.  H.,  Sellersville,  Pa. 
Warner,  A.  N.,  Northumberland,  Pa. 
AVasmund,  H.  C,  Frankford,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Weidley,  J,  E.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Weiskotten,  C.  p.,  Mauayunk,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Weiskotten,  F.  W.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Weller,  H,  a.,  Orwigsburg,  Pa. 
Wp:nner,  G.  U.,  D.D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Whitmore,  F.  E  ,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Wischan,  F.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Wolf,  Prof.  E.  J.,  D.D.,  Gettysburg, 

Pa. 
YouNT,  A.  L.,  D.D.,  Greensburg,  Pa. 
Ziegenfuss,  S.  a.,  D.D.,  Germantown. 

Pa. 


STUDENTS  OF  THEOLOGY. 


Barr,  W.  Penn,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Baum,  F.  J.,  Gettysburg,  Pa. 
Carty,  a.  C,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Deal,  Jos.  F.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Dozer,  Chas.  E.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila  ,  Pa. 
Genszler,  G,  W.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Glenn,  J.  O.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Greise,  G.  a.,  Gettysburg,  Pa. 
Hankey,  B.  F.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Hartwig,  Geo.  H.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Herold,  I.  S.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phi!a.,  Pa. 
Jacobs,  Chas.  M.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Keehley,  John,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila  ,  Pa. 
Kemling,  E.  J.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Kopenhaver,  W.  M.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Lehman,  John  J.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Little,  C.  H.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  I'a. 


Little,  W.  H.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Mamler,  F.  L.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Mattes,  John  C,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Matthews,  Gomer  B.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Miller,  Francis,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
MosER,  I.  O.,  Gettysburg,  Pa. 
Nelson,  W.  L,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Eahn,  Chas.  S.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Repass,  E.  A.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Richards,  H.  F.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Stkassberger,  IL,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Strodach,  Paul  Z.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Trabert,  Wm.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Weiskotten,  F.  F.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Young,  Chas.  J.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 


325 


Altvater,  CnAS.,  Reuovo,  Pa. 
Baetes,  Henry,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Bennett,  J.  W.,  Germantown,  Pa. 
Berkemeyer,  C.  M.,  Sellersville,  Pa. 
BiSHOFF,  Chas.,  Philiu,  Pa. 
Boner,  Henry  S.  ,  Pliila.,  Pa. 
Bremer,  Jos.  A.,  Phila. ,  Pa. 
Burnett,  Dr.  G.  G.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Campbell,   Pkof.    E.   E  ,    Mechanics- 
burg,  Pa. 
Eberly,  J.  W.,  Strasburg,  Va. 
Fischer,  Edw.  F.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Hager,  C.  E.,  Rigsville,  Pa. 
Hartkanft,  F.  a.,  Esq.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Height,  Geo.  A.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Helb,  Edward,  Shrewsbury,  Pa. 
Keller,  Luther  P.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Kugler,  Paul  J.,  Ardmore,  Pa. 


LAYMEN. 

Long,  Chas.,  Lebanon,  Pa. 
Micueler,  Geo.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Miller,  E.  Aug.,  Esq.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Miller,  J.  Wash.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Miller,  Wm.  J.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Moore,  Jas.  B.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
MosER,  J.  S.,  Conshohocken,  Pa. 
MoYER,  H.  F.,  Buflalo,  N.  Y. 
Plitt,  Prof.  Geo.  L.,  Buflalo,  N.  Y. 
Raudenbush,  Dr.  J.  S.,  Buflalo,  N.  Y. 
ScHLEGELMiLCH,  G.  E.,  E.s(i.,  BufTalo, 

N.  Y. 
Schlichter,  J.  W. ,  Conshohocken,  Pa. 
Spaeth,  Prof.  J.  Duncan,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Staake,  Wm.  H.,  Esq.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Stine,  Dr.  L.  D.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Stoever,  W.  C  Esq.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Ulrich,  Dr.  Geo.  R.,  Phila.,  Pa. 


LADIES. 


Chambers,  Miss  Lizzie,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Grotevent,  Mrs.  F.  J.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Hegeman,  Mrs.  G.  E.,  Sv^llersville,  Pa. 
Hill,  Mrs.  Reuben,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila., 

Pa. 
Jacobs,  Mrs.  H.  E.,  Mt.  Airy,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Kugler,  Dr.  Anna  S.,  Ardmore,  Pa. 


Miller,  Miss  K.  B.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Miller,  Miss  M.  A.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Monroe,  Mrs.  H.  E.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Tate,  Mrs.  M.  L.,  Phila.,  Pa. 
Vollers,  Mrs.  E.  P.,  Staunton,  Va. 
Weller,  Miss  Florence  J.,  Orwigs- 
burg.  Pa. 


II^DEX    OF    PERSONS. 


Albert,  C.  S.,  36,  38,  39,  144,  271. 

Albert,  J.,  54. 

Albert,  L.  E.,  35,  39,  90,  307. 

Arndt,  197. 

Baker,  J.  C,  47. 

Baldwin,  242. 

Baum,  ^y.  M.,  53. 

Baum,  W.  M.,  Jr.,  37. 

Bauslin,  H.  D.,  35,  36,  40,  88,  110. 

Bell,  E.  K.,  37,  40,  196. 

Bengel,  86. 

Boltzius,  66. 

Braun,  A.,  71. 

Brown,  J.  A.,  52. 

Bugenhagen,  68. 

Burnett,  G.  G,,  36,  93. 

Bushnell,  284. 

Clianning,  284. 
Cliemnitz,  233,  236. 
Conrad,  Y.  L.,  37,  229. 

Da  Costa,  229. 
Darwin,  284. 
Deininger,  A..  G.,  54. 
Demme,  45. 

Dimm,  J.  R.,  38,  237,  250,  269. 
Drummond,  314. 
Dunbar,  W.  11.,  37,  205,229. 
Dylander,  30. 
Earhart,  D.,  35,  80. 
Edwards,  J.,  284. 
Enders,  G.  W.,  38,  248. 
Endress,  45. 
326 


Fliedner,  217,  218,  219,  221. 

Forsyth,  155. 

Fox,  L.  A.,  37,  174. 

Francke,  197. 

Frank,  234,  281. 

Freas,  Wra.  S.,  17,  35. 

Fre<lenis,  235. 

Fritschel,  G.,  75. 

Fry,  J.,  36,  38,  90,  270. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  220. 

Gerhard,  233,  236,  241,  242. 
Gilbert,  D.  M.,  181. 
Goedel,  C,  208. 
Gordon,  256. 
Groff,  J.  R.,  37,  163. 
Gronau,  66. 
Gunn,  W.,  46. 
Gustavus,  Adolphus,  30. 

Haas,  G.  C.  F.,  37. 

Haas,  J.  A.  W.,  35,  36,  38,  80,  144, 

230,  250. 
Hamma,  M.  W.,  39,297. 
Handel,  152. 
Harnack,  154,  279. 
Hartraan,  A.  S.,  38. 
Hay.  C.  A.,  47. 
Hay,  C.  K,  36. 
Helmuth,  J.  C.  F.,  31. 
Henkel,  P.,  42. 
Heyer,  C.  F.,  46,  249.    • 
Hodge,  293. 
Hoefling,  250. 


INDEX  OF  PERSONS. 


327 


Hoffman,  J.  N.,  58. 
HoUazius,  236. 
Holmes,  284. 

Horn,  E.  T.,  35,  38,  39,  80,  81,  90, 
249. 

Jacobs,  H.  E.,  30,  35,  37,  39,  51, 
161,  163,  184,  203,  211,  212. 

Kaehler,  F.  A.,  37,  38, 40,  230,  262, 

271. 
Kaftan,  280. 
Keller,  B.,  47. 
Keller,  E.,  56. 
Kliefoth,  158,  184,  236,  250. 
Knipstroh,  235. 
Koller,  J.  C,  37,  152. 
Krauth,  C.  P.,  Sr.,  46.  56,  60. 
Krauth,  C.  P.,  80,  230. 
Krotel,  G.  P.,  35,  36,  38,  39,  40,  89, 

132,  271,  308. 
Kuebel,  280. 
Kuhlman,  L.,  38. 
Kunze,  J.   C,  63,   71,   72,  73  sq., 

96,  115. 
Kuuzman,  J.  C,  144. 
Kurtz,  B.,  56,  58,  78,  227. 
Kurtz,  J.  N.,  67. 

La  Place,  284. 

Lemme,  275. 

Looliman,  G.,  45. 

Loehe,  90,  250. 

Longfellow,  284. 

Luckcock,  152. 

Luther,  49,  68,  76,  117,  120,  126, 
132,  147,  151,  154,  160,  176,  185, 
217,  231,  234,  240,  248,  286,  303. 

Manhart,  F.  P.,  37,  227. 
Manu,  W.  J.,  47. 
Martensen,  152,  158. 
Matthesius,  J.,  236. 


Mayer,  P.  F.,  17,  58. 
Melanchthon,  49,  146,  231,  235. 
Miller,  R.  J.,  76. 
Miller,  W.  J.,  46. 
Morris,  J.  G.,  56. 
Morthens,  Louise,  219. 
Muhlenherg,  F.  A.  C.,71. 
Muhlenberg,  H.  M.,  31,  41,  43,  45, 

48,  49,  57,62,   63,  66    sq.,  186, 

197. 
Muhlenberg,  W.  A.,  220. 

Nicum,  J.,  35,  63,  81,  87. 

Ochsenford,  S.  E.,  17,  35. 

Officer,  M.,  249. 

Origen,  252. 

Ort,  S.  A.,  36,  105. 

Owen,  S.  W.,  36,  37,  39,  40,  309. 

Painter,  F.  V.  N.,  36,  37,  38,  39, 

40,  94,  308. 
Palladius,  236. 
Parson,  W.  E.,  38,  250,  271. 
Passavant,   W.    A.,    218,   219,  220, 

221. 
Passavant,   W.   A.,  Jr.,  37,  38,  40, 

216,  230,  270. 
Pestalozzi,  313. 
Peters,  Rich.,  70. 
Phelps,  Elizabeth  Stuart,  284. 
Philippi,  250. 

Quenstedt,  203. 
Quitman,  77. 

Reichardt,  Gertrude,  218. 
Reynolds,  W.  M.,  56,  221. 
RitschI,  279. 
Rocholl,278. 
Rudman,  30. 

Schaeffer,  C.  F.,  50. 


328 


INDEX  OF  PERSONS. 


Schaeffer,  C  AV.,  47. 
Schafl;  P.,  257. 
Schantz,  F.  J.  F.,  38,  271. 
Scheele,  H.  F.,  35,36,37. 
Schlatter,  M.,  69. 
Schleiermaclier,  274,  280. 
Schmauk,  T.  E.,  39,  283. 
Schmucker,  S.  S.,  44,  45, 54,  78. 
Scholl,  Geo.,  37,  38,  164,  270. 
Seiss,  J.  A.,   17,  36,   37,  38,  115, 

184,  247. 
Shober,  G.,  76. 
Sibole,  E.  E.,  17,  36. 
Smith,  C.  A.,  56. 
Smith,  L.  L.,  37,  186. 
Spaeth,  A.,  35,  36,  37,  38,  50,  54^ 

80,  90,  146,  163,  227. 
Spener,  197,  313. 
Sprecher,  S. ,  48. 
Staake,  W.  H.,  36,  90. 
Stedman,  284. 
Strebeck,  9,  72,  74. 


Torkillus,  64. 

Van  Buskirk,  L.,  75. 

Vilmar,  231. 

Voigt,  A.  G.,  39,  272. 

Walther,  231,  250. 
Warner,  284. 
AVeidner,  R.  F.,  38. 
Weiss,  J.,  277. 
Wenner,  G.  U.,  39,309. 
Wesley,  198. 
Whitefield,  70. 
Whittier,  284. 
Wichtermann,  G.  J.,  71. 
Willard,  Frances,  206. 
Williams,  E.  F.,  216. 
Wolf,  E.  J.,  35,  36,  38,  41,  88,  145, 
163,  246. 

Zwingli,  77,  278. 


IINDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Agenda,  50,  55  sq.,  57,  63,  77,  81,  185,  235. 

Agreement  among  Lutherans,  175,  308. 

Albany,  N.  Y.,  54. 

AUentown  Case,  53. 

Alkcosis,  27><. 

Altar  Fellowship,  69,  73. 

America,  Modern  Religious  issues  in,  283. 

Amsterdam,  64. 

Antecedents,  our  common  historical,  41  sqq.,  63  sqq. 

"  Common  devotional  literature,  53  sq.,  68  sq. 

"  "         doctrine,  49  sq.,  53,  63  sq. 

"  "         heritage,  41,  64  sq.,  197, 204. 

"  "         organic  form,  41. 

"  Confessional  fidelity,  G4  scj.,  79,  198. 

"  Co-operation,  45  sq. 

"  Discordant  elements,  43  sq.,  75  sq. 

"  Divisions,  48  sq. 

"  Periodical  literature,  58  sq. 

"  Transition  from  German  to  English,  61,  74. 

Apology,  146,  185,  233. 
Apostoli  um,  273. 
Arbitration,  Board  of,  30,  34. 
Arminians,  199. 
Augsburg  Confession,  33,  34,  49,  .50,  52,  63,  63,  7.3,  122,  123,  153,  175,  182, 

198,  231,  237,  239,  250,  258,  292,  295,  312. 
Aversion  to  intellectual  religion,  274. 
Barren  Hill,  67. 
Baptism,  23,  151,311,  314. 
Boole  of  Common  Prayer,  178. 
Book  of  Concord.     See  Symbolical  Books. 
Cnbarrus  Co.,  N.  C,  66. 
Calenberg  K.  O.,  235. 
Call  to  the  ministry,  238,  246,  247. 
Calvinism,  77,  198,  256,  284. 

329 


330  INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 

Carolinas,  6'>. 

Catet'lietical  instruction,  311  sqq. 

Catechism,  Lnther's,  30,  58,  59,67,  68,  162,  181,  198,  312. 

"  Place  of  in  Sunday-school,  192. 

Catecluiinenate,  The  Child,  309  .sqq. 
"  Advantages,  321. 

"  Christian  training  of  children,  311. 

Defined,  321. 
"  Grades  in  methods  of  instruction,  317. 

"  History  of,  in  the  early  Church,  310  sq. 

"  History  of,  in  the  Reformation  period,  312  sq. 

"  Importance  of,  316. 

"  Its  place  in  the  New  Testament,  315. 

Object  of,  311. 
"  Objections  answered,  319. 

Practice,  317. 
"  Relation  of  child  to  Church,  313  sq. 

"  Rule  of  the  Church,  311. 

Value  of,  318. 
Charleston,  S.  C,  63,  66,  70. 
Cliild  Catcchumenate,  309,  sqq. 

Cliildren,  Training  of,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Church,  190. 
Christ,  The  historical,  278  sq. 
Ciiristian  activity  outside  of  the  Church,  209. 
Christianity,  Question  of  genuine,  277. 

Churcli  Authority,  The  Scope  and  Limitations  of,  116  sqq.,  132  sqq. 
"  Defined,  136  sq.,  1-41  sq. 

"  in  Apostolic  times,  139. 

"  in  matters  of  confes-iion,  127  sq.,  129. 

"  in  matters  of  discipline,  144  sq. 

"  in  teacliing  and  worship,  124,  139. 

Church  Defined,  132,  251. 
Cliurch  and  State,  29G. 
Church  Government,  201. 
Church  of  Apostolic  times,  211. 

"       and  Kingdom  distinguished,  144. 

"       Constitution  of,  143. 

"       ('ongregations,  122,  144. 

*'       Different  conceptions  of,  118. 

"       Headship  of  Clirist,  121,  134,  138. 

"       Liberty,  true  idea  of,  127.  , 

"       Limitations  of,  125. 

"       Luther's  position,  120. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS.  331 

Cliurch  Principles  involved,  IIG,  139  sq. 
"       Protestant  conception,  120. 
"       Romish  conception,  119. 
"       Scliools,  69. 
"       The  unity  of,  17  sqq. 

"         "         Definition,  18. 
"  "         "         Negative  consideration,  18  sq. 

"  "         "         Positive  side,  19  sij. 

"  "         "         What  unity  demands,  24  sq. 

ChurlandK.  O.,  185. 
Co-education,  99,  103. 
Colleges,  Lutheran,  96  sq. 
Common  Book,   The,    174   sqq. 

"  "       Definition  of  the  term,  174. 

"  "       Diversity  of  books  in'_use,  178. 

"  "       Efforts  made  to  secure  a,  184. 

"  "       Its  contents :  Common  Service,  1S2. 

Q^cumenical  Creeds,  etc.,  182. 
Orders  for  ministerial  acts,  182. 
Uniformity  of  Hymnal,  183. 
"  "       Its  need,  as  a  bond  of  union,  174  sq. 

for  development  of  religious  life,  179  sq. 
to  awaken  deeper  church  love,  ISO  sq. 
''  "       Uniformity,  authorities  in  favor  of,  184. 

Common  Service,  34,  5(5,  iS2,  181  sq. 
Communion  of  Saints,  32. 
Confederation  of  churches,  34. 
Conference,  General,  of  Lutherans,  9  sqq.,  63,  80. 
"  Aim  of,  16  sq.,  31  sq.,  309. 

Call  of,  12. 
"  Essays  of,  41  S(iq. 

"  Official  action  with  reference  to,  9  sq. 

"  Opening  address  of,  30  sq. 

"  Opening  service  of,  17  sq. 

"  Preliminary  statement  concerning,  9  sq. 

"  Proceedings  of,  35  sqq.  , 

"  Program  of,  13,  35  sq. 

"  Rules,  14. 

Confessional  iidelity,  50,  64,  68,  79,  198. 

"  laxity,  49  sq. 

Confirmation,  202. 
Congregation,  249. 
Constitution  of  Synods,  71. 


332  INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 

Conversion,  present-cl;iy  forces  for,  314. 
Co-operati(in,  The  Problein  of,  297  sq.,  308. 
Basis  of,  298. 
"  Education,  45. 

"  Foreign  missions,  46. 

"  Home  missions,  47. 

''  Obstacles  in  the  way,  302. 

"        difFerences  in  practices,  303. 
"        diversity  of  language  and  nationality,  302. 
"        irresponsible  journalism,  304. 
"  Practicability  of  present  plan,  306,  207,  308. 

Creed  subscription,  129. 
Deaconess,  a  ministry  of  mercy,  213,  219. 

"  Motherhouse,jbeginuing,  etc.,  216  sqq. 

"  Work,  205  sqq. 

"      Classification  of,  228. 
"  "      Early  antagonism  and  difficulties,  220  sq.,  227. 

"  "      Enlargement  of,  229. 

"  "in  General  Synod,  207. 

"  "      Organically  connected  with  Church,  207,  209,  212. 

"  "      Relation  to  Church,  213. 

Deaconesses,  Motherhouses  of,  2()5,  208,  209,  214,  216,  219,  221,  223,  225, 
227,  230. 
"  ''  Adapted  to  American  needs,  226. 

"  "  Beginnings  of,  216  sq. 

"  "  Outside  the  Lutheran  Church,  225, 

«'  '«  Principles  of,  222. 

"  "  Relation  to  Church,  214,  224. 

"  "  Spirit  of,  225. 

"  "  Small  beginning  at  Kaiserswerth,  216,  218,  219. 

Diaconate,  N.  T.,  Female,  206,  211  sq.,  213,217,  223. 
"  European  jjosition  not  a  guide,  208. 

"  Introduction  into  this  country,  218  sq. 

"  In  its  relation  to  the  Church,  210. 

"  In  its  greatest  usefulness,  210. 

"  Origin,  purpose  and  authority,  210,  212. 

"  Protestant  Institution  in  Allegheny  Co.,  219. 

"  Scriptural  foundation,  223. 

"  The  only  safe  position,  209,  210. 

Diets,  3],  53. 
Discipline,  144  sq. 
Divisions,  48. 
Doctrine  ;aid  Forms  of  Prayer,  81   sqq. 


INDEX  OP  SUBJECTS.  333 

Duesseldorf,  217. 

Dutch  Lutherans,  64. 

East  Camp,  71. 

Eden,  Garden  of,  284. 

Education,  Dangerous  tendencies,  110. 

"  Christian,  lOG,  108  sq. 

Female,  98,  220. 

"  in  the  Lutheran  Churcli,  94,  108. 

"  Needs  of,  101  sq.,  114. 

"  Number  of  institutions,  100,  108. 

"  Services  to  the  Church,  101,  105,  107  sq. 

"  Services  to  the  State,  113. 

Spirit  of,  98,  112. 
Standard  of,  99. 

"  Standards  of  Ministerial,  250,  260. 

Educational  Idea  of  Lutheran  Church,  97  sq. 
''  Institutions,  Our,  94  sqq.,  105  sqq. 

"  Work  in  tliis  country,  95  sq. 

Elders,  appointment  of,  in  N.  T.,  140. 
England,  217. 

English  Lutherans,  200,  204. 
Episcopal  Church,  74,  75. 
"  Evangelical  Review,"  58  sq. 
Female  Diacouate,  206  sqq. 

Female  Education  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  98,  220. 
Foreign  Missionary  Society,  46. 
Foreign  jMissions,  46. 
Foreign  Mission  Work,  Problems  in,  164  sqq. 

"  "  "        Christ's  Commission,  164. 

"  "  "       Denominationalism  in,  173. 

"  "  "       Native  Church,  171. 

"  "  "       Native  Ministry,  170. 

"  "  "       Object  of,  172. 

"  "  "       Requirements,  166  sq. 

"  "  "       Self-support  of  native  church,  173. 

"  "  "       The  call  to  labor  in,  165. 

"  "  "       The  problem  of  education,  170. 

"  "  "       Who  shall  engage  in,  165. 

"  "  "       Where  work  is  to  be  done,  168. 

Formula  Juramenti,  73. 
Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  31,  43,  57. 
Franklin  College,  40. 
Frederick,  Md.,  45. 


334  INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 

General  Coufereuce,  ProceeJiugs  of,  35  sq. 

General  Council,  31,  32,  33,  41. 

General  Synod,  31,  32,  33,  42  sq.,  47,  48,  cSO,  255. 

"  "         and  Miuisterium  of  Pennsylvania,  44  sq. 

Georgia,  Lutherans  in,  66,  198. 
German  and  English,  transition,  61,  75. 
German-English  Seminary,  86, 115. 
German  Immigration,  96. 
German  Lutherans,  65. 
German  Mass,  185. 
Germantown,  30. 

Germany,  Modern  Religious  issues,  272. 
Gettysburg  Theological  Seminary,  45,  50,  52,  60,  115. 
Gloria  Dei  Church,  30. 
Government  of  the  Church,  201. 
Hackensack,  N.  J.,  64,  74. 
Hamburg,  65. 

Heidelberg  Catecliism,  312. 
Helvetic  Confession,  231. 
Hildesheim,  235. 
"  Historical  Christ,"  278  sq. 
Holland,  64,  217. 
Home  Missionary  Society,  47. 
Home  Missions,  47,  64. 
Hoya,  235. 

Hyran-Book,  Union,  49. 
Hymn-Bonks,  43,  49,  50,  54  sq.,  77  sq. 
Judicial  Oaths, 90  sq. 
.lustilication,  spirituality  of  doctrine,  201. 
Kaiserswerlh,  216,  218,  219. 
Keys,  Power  of,  124,  144,  239. 
Lancaster,  Pa.,  .30. 
Laying  on  of  liands,  232,  242,  244. 
Lay-workere,  229  sq. 
Licensure,  2(50. 
Litany,  85. 

Liturgy,  31,  42,  55  sq  ,  0.3,  68  sq.,  76,  77,  80  sq.,  185. 
London,  65. 
Loonenburg,  65. 
Lord's  Supper,  Spirituality  of,  203. 

"  Place  in  worship,  154,  160. 

•'  Real  Presence,  203. 

Lueneburg  K.  O.,  235. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS.  335 

Luther's  Small  Catccliiaiu.     See  Catechism. 
Lutheran  Bishops,  201. 
"         Divisions,  175. 

"         Estimate  of  ordination,  230  sqq.,  237  sqq. 
"         Immigration,  9(3. 
''         Organizations,  175. 
"         Polity,  weakness  of,  17d. 
"        Tlieology,  Sacramental  idea  in,  140,  152. 

Union,  33,  41. 
"         University,  104,  115. 
"         "Worship,  Sacramental  idea  in,  14H,  152. 
Lutlieran  Church  and  Modern  Keligious  Issues,  272  sqq.,  283  sqq. 
"  in  America,  283  sqq. 

"  in  Germany,  272  sqq. 

"  Common  historical  antecedents,  41  sqq.,  63  sqq. 

"  Lack  of  schools,  95,  199. 

Lutheranism  and  Spirituality,  1 90  sqq. 

"  in  d<ictrine  and  worship,  204. 

"  Position  in  America,  205. 

"  Kightly  apprehended,  190. 

"  Spirituality  deliued,  190. 

"  System  deeply  spiritual,  197,  200,  201,  204. 

"  versus  Romish  and  Reformed  Churclies,  203. 

Lutherans  in  America,  205. 

"         and  Reformed,  49,  76. 
"         Holland,  04. 
"         IS'ew  Jersey,  65. 
"         New  York,  64. 
"         North  and  South  Carolina,  66. 
PliiladL-lpliia,  67. 
IMale  Diaconate,  215,  264. 
Mary  J.  Drexel  Home,  37,  229. 
Mecklenhurg  K.  0.,235. 
Minit>teriuni  of  Pennsylvania.     See  Synod. 
Ministerial  Education,  Standard  of,  250  sqq.,  262  sqq. 

"  "  Difliculty  to  enforce  uniformity,  253,  25'). 

"  "  Need  of  primary  education,  270. 

"  "  Progress  made,  271. 

"  "  Requirements  of  ministerial  office,  251  sq. 

"  "  Standard  retiuired  and  applied,  254,  260  sq.,  2t)9. 

"  "  The  shaping  elements,  265,  267. 

Ministry,  142,  250,  262. 

"         lulellectual  standing,  271. 


336  INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 

Modern  Religious  Issues,  259,  272,  282. 
Moravians,  76. 

Motherliouses  of  Deaconesses,  200  sqq. 
Mystical  union,  203. 
Names,  Kegister  of,  322  sqq. 
Kewberry  College,  101. 
N^ewburg,  N.  Y.,  65. 
New  Jersey,  65. 
New  Measures,  58,  61. 
New  Netheiland,  128. 
New  Rhinebeck,  65. 

New  Testament,  Female  Diaconate,  216  sq.,  213,  216,  217,  223. 
"  Male  Diaconate,  215. 

Sacraments,  151,  153,  162. 
New  York,  64. 
North  Carolina,  66. 
Old  faith  and  new  faith,  278. 

Ordination,  Lutheran  Estimate  of,  230  sqq.,  237  sqq. 
"  Call  to  office,  238,  246,  247. 

"  Congregation  and  ministry,  248,  249,  250. 

«'  Doctrine  steted,  230,  237,  241  sq. 

"  Essential  import,  243. 

"  Lutheran  position,  237. 

"  Not  a  Sacrament,  235. 

•*  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Theologians,  234,  240. 

Scriptural  basis,  232  sq. ,  239  sq. 
"  Status  of  tlie  ordained,  245,  246. 

"  Value  of,  diflerently  estimated,  230  sqq.,  250. 

Osnabrueck  K.  O.,  235. 
Ostfrisiah,  235. 

Pennsylvania  College,  46,  96,101. 
Pennsylvania  Liturgy,  31,  50,  55  sq.,  68,  77,  SO,  81. 
Periodical  Literature,  58  sq. 
Philadelpl'iia,67,  96,  115. 
Platform,  The  Definite,  78. 
Prayer:    Its  Doctrine  and  Forms,  81  sqq. 
"         Definition,  81  sq. 
"         Family  prayer,  90,  93. 
"         Forms,  83  sq.,  88  sq. 
' '         Free  prayers,  90. 
"         Litany,  85. 
"         Posture  in  prayer,  90. 
"         Prayers  of  the  Church,  84,  89. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS.  387 

Prayer :    Prayers  of  lodges,  87. 
"         Prayer-meetings,  70. 
"        Prayers  to  be  read,  86,  88,  89. 
Promise  of  Gospel  Sealed  by  Sacraments,  203. 
Protestant  versus  Roman  countries,  230. 
Protestantism  arraigned  as  a  failure,  229. 
Publication  Society,  47. 
Pulpit  Fellowship,  69. 
Quatenus,  130. 
Quia,  129,  130. 
Rationalism,  200,  313. 
Real  Presence,  159,  163,  203. 
Reformed,  49,  69,  198,  231,  312. 
Reformed  and  Lutheran,  49,  76. 
Religious  Issues,  259,  272,  283. 
"  Reverse,"  71,  72. 
Rhinebeck,  63. 
Roanoke  College,  101. 

Sacramental  Idea  in  Lutheran  Theology  and  Worship,  146  sqq.,  152  sqq. 
"  "        and  the  Sacraments,  161. 

"  "        based  on  Revelation,  155. 

'•  "         errors,  148,  149. 

'«  "        inseparable  from  the  Church,  157. 

"  "        involves  responsiveness,  158. 

"  "        nature  of,  in  our  confessions,  146  sq.,  153  sq. 

"  "         other  than  Lutheran,  152. 

"  "        position  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  149,  153, 163. 

"  "         specific  meaning  of  the  term,  150. 

Sacramental  union,  nature  of,  151. 
Sacraments,  conception  of,  150. 

"  Distinctive  characteristics,  162. 

"  Essentials  in,  163. 

"  Lutheran  position,  152,  158,  159,  163. 

"  New  Testament,  151,  153. 

Spirituality  of,  202. 
"  versus  Transubstantiation,  160,  163. 

Sacramentum  versus  Sacrificium,  146. 
Saint  John's  Church,  17,  31. 
"     Matthew's  Church,  31. 
Salzburgers  in  Georgia,  66,  198. 
Savannah,  Ga.,  63. 
Schmid's  Dogmatik,  60. 
Scientific  spirit,  274. 
22 


;«S  INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 

Sharon,  65. 

Siualcald  .A.rticles,  132,  240. 

Spirituality  and  Lutheranisin,  196  sqq. 

SubjectivLsm,  274 . 

Sunday-School,  Conception  of,  187. 

"  "      Place  of  Catechism  in,  192. 

"      Place  of  Holy  Scripture,  19 1. 
"  "      Service  and  Church  Service,  190. 

"      Teaching,  191 . 
"      Training  of  children,  190,  191. 
Sunday-School  Literature,  common,  186  sqq. 
"  "  "  hindrances  to,  194. 

"  "  "  kind  of  Literature  needed,  193. 

"  "  "  need  of  common,  195. 

Swedes,  64,  187. 

Symbolical  Books,  41,  50,  53,  53,  59,  60,  63  sq.,  73,  76,  78,  123,  178,  232  . 
Synods,  Corpus  EvangfAkum^  76. 

"       East  Pennsylvania,  45,  47,  51. 
"       Frankeau,  (>5,  78. 
"       Maryland  and  Virginia,  42. 

'^       Ministerlum  of  New  York,  42,  49,  54,  55,  57,  63,  67,  71.  77,  222. 
•'       Ministerlum  of  Pennsylvania,  31,  32,  41,  42,  44,  49,  50,  51,  52,  54 
57,61,  63,  66sq.,  71,77sq. 
'       North  Carolina,  42,  49,  76. 
■        Ohio,  Joint  Synod,  42,  43,  48,  59. 
"       Pittsburg,  80.  221. 

Tennessee,  48,  51,  59,  178. 
"       West  Pennsylvania,  54>  58. 
Synods  and  Schools,  260,  269  sq. 
Synods,  Constitution  of,  71. 
Synods,  organization  of,  42. 
Synods,  unity  of,  175. 
Tarbush,  71. 

Transubstantiation,  160,  163. 
True  Unity  of  the  Church,  17  sqq.,  291. 
Tulpehocken,  67. 
Union  Hymn-book,  49. 

United  Synod  of  the  South,  31,  33,  100  sqq.,  308. 
Unity  of  the  Church,  17  sqq. 
University,  a  Lutheran,  104,  115. 
Virginia  Conference,  42 . 
Wernigerode,  73 . 
West  Camp,  72. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS.  339 


Westminster  Confession,  257. 
Wittenberg  College,  101. 
Wittenberg  K.  O. ,  235. 
Worship,  179. 

"         Sacramental  idea  of,  146,  152. 
Wuertemberg,  246. 
York,  Pa.,  48. 
Zwingli'.s  All(i;osis,  278. 
Zwinglian,  77,  152. 


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